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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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OLITIC 



BY 



William M>. !»arnes. 






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PUBLISHERS: 

MOOSE, WILSTACH & BALDWIN, 
No. H west fOUBTH street, cihcihhati. 

NEW Y<iKK: 18 WALKKIt STREET. 

1866. 



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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 18G<>, by 
MOORE, WILSTACH & BALDWIN, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
Southern District of Ohio. 



3 <5 / 2- * 



1 



CONTEXTS 



PAGE 

Introduction 7 

CHAPTER I. 
America in Figures 15 

CHAPTER II. 
National Zoology 21 

CHAPTER III. 
National Brutality 27 

CHAPTER IV. 
National Humanity 32 

rilAPTER V. 
Infancy or the Nation 38 

CHAPTER VI. 
Modes of National Growth 46 

CHAPTER VII. 
Of what Substance the Body Politic Consists.... 55 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Hkad Bktter than Two 62 

CHAPTER IX. 
Hardness of Bone Es>kntial to Uprightness 71 



IV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER X. page 

How Political Bone Becomes Compact 

CHAPTER XL 
Phosphorus in the Body — Pains and Pleasures 

of Fire-Eating 90 

CHAPTER XII. 
National Nerves — Their Former and their Lat- 
ter Uses 101 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Our Main Artery and its Important Functions.. 108 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Our Landed Estate, and how we have a Rich 

Uncle 190 

CHAPTKK XV. 
Folly of AFFECTION for a Part and Hatred of 

the Whole 138 

CHAPTER XVI. 
How Deadly Disorder is Contracted, and Cure 

Accomplished by Desperate Remedy 139 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Nervousness — A Modern Malady which Befalls 

the Mother of First Families 160 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
The Mind which Animates the Body Politic 157 



CONTENTS. V 

CHAPTER XIX. pack 

The National Wim, -Who may Express it and 

01 what Color tuky mist be 165 

CHAPTER XX. 
I.i EGI8LATI0S — How tiik Popular Will, Uttered at 

the Ballot-box, becomes Law ... 177 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Executive — Qualifications Required in the Man 

who carries out National Will 197 

CHAPTER XXII. 

JlDlCIARY HOW WE INTERPRET OUR LAWS 219 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
From Jerusalem to Jericho — Scenes from our 

quadrennial elections 230 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
How the Public Mind is Educated 239 

CHAPTER XXV. 

The American Language — Our good Heritage and 

how we use it 247 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
PUBLIC Piety — -Difference between a Religious 

State and a State Kflkjion 200 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
Intemperan. e— Qui Unprofitable Pai:t\ er^iiip... 270 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXVIII. page 

Our Fountain of Youth — How the Nation Renews 

her Strength 276 

CHAPTER XXIX. 
Nations are not Immortal, and States do some- 
times Die 286 

CHAPTER XXX. 
The Paradise of Nations and the Political Lifk 

to Come 297 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE AUTHOR AND THE READER. 



WlLL you have an Introduction 



"Certainly; we always look for one at the 
opening of a book." 

Not so fast, good reader. I was going to ask if 
you would have an introduction to the most illus- 
trious personage in the world. 

" The President of the United States, the Queen 
of England, the Emperor of the French, the 
Czar of Kussia, or ." 

Hold, good reader, you are looking in the 
wrong direction. The personage of whom I 
speak is greater than any and all of those 
worthies combined. 

" Impossible! I have named the most dis- 
tinguish^! monarchy of the earth." 

The personage to whom I would introduce 
you is made up of sovereigns, and ie greater 



Vlll INTRODUCTION. 

than any crowned and sceptered monarch — The 
American Republic. 

"What can be the constituents of such extra- 
ordinary greatness?" 

Illustrious lineage, vast territorial domain, 
royal power, rare intelligence, pure morality, 
and the glory of distinguished deeds. She has 
been victorious over all her foes, and has lately 
subdued the greatest rebellion the world has ever 
seen. Presentation to such a personage will do 
you honor. 

"She must be a dull and uninteresting person, 
sin°,e all that is known of her is contained in 
prosy histories and law books." 

You have a wrong impression. A more inter- 
esting person does not exist. 

" Whatever may be her personal character, 
the little I have seen of her in books has been 
anything but entertaining." 

Because you have always contemplated the 
Republic in the abstract. You should contem- 
plate her in the concrete, composed of living, 
moving, irrepressible Americans. 



INTRODUCTION, IX 

11 When a child, 1 was much amused with a 

picture of a great Druidical idol, made of wicker 
Work, in human shape, and tilled with men and 
women clambering about in head and limbs and 
trunk. I might be amused with a figure of the 
American Republic, gotten up on the same prin- 
ciple, did I not suspect it of being a device to 
lead me unawares to mix in politics, something 
which I leave wholly to politicians." 

Just so far do you come short of being a good 
citizen. It is a great mistake which some good 
people make, to suppose there is something 
polluting in politics, making it proper to leave 
it in the hands of politicians and demagogues. 
Jt ifl time that the better class of Americans 
should know more of government and take an 
active part in politics. 

•Y<>u speak of a 'better class' — you then re- 
cognise the existence of an aristocracy in this 
country/ 1 

The only aristocracy I recognize is the great, 
free, good-at-hearl American people, who con- 
stitute the majority, and consequently the beet 



X INTRODUCTION. 

part of the nation. The politicians form a small, 
and, as things go, a powerful minority. The 
people, being divided and inattentive to their 
own interests, have been easily overcome by the 
politicians, who, notwithstanding their apparent 
differences, generally have a fair understanding 
among themselves. They have that proverbial 
"honor" which is said to exist among persons 
of dishonest proclivities. This minority, making 
up in strategy what they lack in mi in hers, are 
generally victorious. They practice a very 
sound principle of military art — divide the ene- 
my and then conquer him in detail. Like the 
wolf, described by Watts, they know 

"Unless the sheep they first divide they never can devour." 

The people, in their virtue and honesty, have 
permitted themselves to know too little and take 
too small a part in politics. 

"Would you have every citizen versed in the 
mysteries of statesmanship?" 

Statesmanship is not so unmanageable a craft 
as many people imagine. Politicians have often 



INTRODUCTION. XI 

come near making our gallant vessel a wreck. 
With a little more knowledge in the people to 
inspire them with self-confidence, they would 
take the helm into their own hands. 

M What ifl the nature of this needful knowl- 
edge?" 

They must first know themselves. The Science 
of Government, like charity, begins at home. 
The people should adopt the maxim of Thales, 
the philosopher, "Know Thyself.'" The Greeks 
appreciated this so highly that they enrolled 
its author as first among their "Seven Sages." 

"What hearing can self-knowledge have on the 
Science of Government? ' 

Every man being a constituent part of the 
State, and having a close resemblance to other 
men. when he thoroughly knows himself he has 
made important progress toward a knowledge of 

- neighbors and his nation. 

"You mean that the citizen has as much 
mUftnoe to the nation as the famous brick 
had to the house cif which the Roman Belli it 
for a specimen." 



Xll INTRODUCTION. 

The citizen is not merely one of the " lively 
stones" which form the fabric of American soci- 
ety; he is a little image of the Republic, every part 
of which has its counterpart in his own person. 

If self-knowledge is carried on to self-conquest, 
not only the theoretical but the practical part of 
government is attained, and tho citizen may be 
a wise ruler as well as an intelligent voter. 

History is an important help to a knowledge 
of the American Government, since it details the 
aspirations and struggles of mankind toward 
great political ideas, never practically developed 
and realized until now. 

All natural science may throw illustrative 
light upon the philosophy and workings of a 
form of government so admirably adapted to 
the nature of man and his surroundings. 

The philosopher w T ho first taught men to know 
themselves, was the first Grecian who knew any- 
thing of nature. Bringing his self-knowledge 
and his knowledge of nature into the arena of 
politics, he stands in history among the wisest 
and best of ancient rulers. He caused his astro- 



INTRODUCTION. Xlll 

nomical knowledge to subserve a political pur- 
pose, and made all his attainments auxiliary to 
his Buccees in statesmanship. 

In the following pages principles in polities 
and government are sometimes illustrated by 
truths of humanity and nature. A political 
truth and a physical fact, placed side by side, are 
supposed to throw illustration upon each other. 
By this combination, if Perception is not quick- 
ened and Intellect enlarged, Memory is aided, 
and Curiosity is urged toward further and pro- 
founder inquiries. 



THE BODY POLITIC. 



CHAPTER I. 
America in Figures. 

Many people are fond of figures. Some have 
I taste for mathematical figures, and delight in 
developing the properties and powers of num- 
bers. They take pleasure in mustering the 
Arabic hosts which spring into existence at the 
touch of the magic pencil. 

They have a pleasant theory that " figures do 
not lie," while unhappy experience has created 
in their minds a conjecture, amounting almost to 
conviction, that members of the human species 
sometimes prevaricate. 

Patriots, with such tastes, delight to contem- 
plate the greatness of their country, as illus- 
trated and described by numerical figures. The 
ponderous vol units of the decennial census are 
to them more attractive works than books of 
poetry and romance. The transcript of a page 

15 



1G 



THE BODY POLITIC. 



from the census report has more thrilling interest 
to them than a quotation from Milton or Shak- 
speare. It gives the same charm to the page that 
pictures give to books intended to amuse or 
educate the young. As an illustration, pleasing 
to persons fond of figures, and instructive to 
such as have not read the Census of 1860, we 
present the following carefully prepared and re- 
liable 

PICTURE OF OUR POPULATION FIGURES IN WHICH THE 

STATES AND TERRITORIES APPEARED IN i860: 





Alabama 


964,201 


Ohio 


<:>11 
62,466 


Arkansas 


486,460 


Oregon 


California 


879,994 


Pennsylvania 


2,906,116 


Connecticut ... 


4t;iU47 


Rhode Island. 


174,620 


Delaware 


112/216 


s. Carolina... 


708,708 


Florida 


140,426 


Tennessee. .. 


1,109,801 


Georgia 


1,067,286 


Texas 


604,216 


Illinois 


1,711,961 


Vermont 


816,098 


Indiana 


1,860,428 


Virginia 


1,696,818 


Iowa 


674,918 


Wisconsin 


776,881 


Kansas 


107/20ti 


Colorado 


34.277 


Kentucky 


1,155,684 




2,261 


Louisiana 


708,002 
628,279 
687,049 


Dakota 


576 


Maine 


Nebraska 

Nevada 


28,841 
6,857 


Maryland 


1 Massachusetts 


1,231,066 




10,507 


Michigan 


749,113 


New Mexico... 


83,009 


Minnesota 


172,123 


Utah 


40,273 


Mississippi 


791,305 




426 


Missouri 


1,182,012 


Washington... 


11,168 


N. Hampshire. 


326,073 


Dist. Columbia 


75,080 


New Jersey ... 
New York 


672,035 

3,880,735 








31,443,322 


N. Carolina... 


992,622 









AMERICA IN FIGURES. 17 

The patriot of statistical tastes delights to 
contemplate his country as represented thus in 
figured of arithmetic To him there is no dull- 
in the work of easting up these long col- 
umns oi^ figures. His pride in contemplating 
the " result "—the -grand total" 31,443,322— 
hears no resemblance to that which the school- 
boy has in producing an "answer" exactly cor- 
responding with the book. His tastes have so 
greatly changed since the days of his pupilage, 
that he rejoices in the size of his "sum," and 
feels patriotic pride in seeing so large a number 
in the place of millions, where in the first census, 
in 1790, there stood a solitary "3." 

Not satisfied with these elementary " figures," 
he proceeds to cipher under the highly propheti- 
cal "Rule of Progression." Eighteen Hundred 
and Seventy. Eighteen Hundred and Eighty, and 
Eighteen Hundred and Ninety, each marshals 
its array of augmenting figures. These years 
at length hide their heads, and fall back before 
the mightier decades which arise in the further 
future. Xumbers increase so rapidly as, at length, 
to give vigorous exercise to the powers of belief. 
Faith would falter, were not the mind sustained 
by the reassuring proverb that "Figures do not 
lie." 

A man with another style of mind has a tastl 



18 THE BODY POLITIC. 

for figures of a different kind. He becomes bewil- 
dered and lost amid the numbers which describe 
the vast populations of the present and the 
future, and takes refuge among "figures of Rhet- 
oric." Metaphor, Simile, and Hyperbole place 
their brilliant pictures before his imagination. 
He delights in the highly-colored delineations 
which poetry presents of his country's present 
and future greatness. 

Simile is a favorite figure, since it abounds in 
"likes," and uses them lavishly as introductions 
to its pleasing and instructive comparisons, thus: 

"America! the sound is like a sword 
To smite the oppressor! Like a loving wool. 
To cheer the Buffering people while they pray 
That God would hasten on the promised <liy, 

When earth shall D€ like Heaven, and men shall stand 

Like brothers round an altar, hand in hand. 

O! ever thus, America! be Btrong, 

Like cataract's thunder, pour the freeman's song, 

Till struggling Europe joins the glad refrain. 

And startled Asia bursts the despot's chain." 

Metaphor takes up the strain, and in bolder 
language describes America as actually pose 
ing the attributes of the symbol employed to 
illustrate its character : 

"Thou noblest scion of an ancient root, 
Born of the forest king! spread forth! 



AMERICA IN FIGURES. 19 

Spread forth! 

High to the stars thy tender leaflets shoot, 
Deep dig their fibers round the ribs of earth, 
From sea to sea ; from south to icy north, 
It must erelong be thine, through good or ill, 
To stretch thy sinewy boughs!" 

These images do not possess that life-like 
character which the ardent imagination desires. 
Something more than empty form is required ; the 
breath of life should animate t4ie image which 
typifies the Nation. Under the glowing affec- 
tion of the patriot, the country assumes a living 
form and human proportions, and thus enlists the 
sympathies to a degree that could not be done by 
an unembodied abstraction: 

Thou, my Country, art no ancient myth, 
No vague conception in the poet's brain; 

cold abstraction of the mystic's thought; 
Thou art a moving, active, present life! 
Thou hast a form more beautiful and fair 
Than e'er before has beautified the earth ; 
A head thou hast to think, a heart to feel, 
A hand to do thy great and glorious work! 
Thou bearest in thy breast a world of hopes; 
Of human sympathies thy heart is full! 
Thou st re west blessings with a lavish hand 
Along the upward pathway of mankind! 

The Athenians penonified their country as a 
fair and majestic female form. Phidias, the 



20 THE BODY POLITIC. 

greatest sculptor of antiquity, gave visible form 
to the idea which existed in the minds of his 
countrymen, when he reared upon the Acropolis 
his colossal statue of Athene, the city's tutelar 
divinity, constructed of ivory and gold. 

The Romans had a conception of their country, 

which was frequently wrought by paintem and 

sculptors, as a queenly woman, seated on a 
geous throne, with a helmet on her head, and 
emblems of world-wide dominion in her hand. 

Humorous caricatures sometimes make their 
appearance in our attempts to personify modern 
nations. The eccentric figures of John Bull and 
Brother Jonathan are easily recognized in picto- 
rial delineations of their exploits. None fail to 

distinguish, at fil*1 glance, the stout, well-rounded 
form of John Ball, with his smooth, full face, and 

firmly planted foot. A smile of recognition al- 
ways greets good-humored Brother Jonathan, 
with his fralik, expressive face, his lofty hat and 
striped breeches, which, from his rapid growth, 
long since parted company with his cowhide 
shoes. So different do these personages appear 
in costume and proportions, that nothing less 
than the indubitable evidence of history would 
induce us to suspect their relationship. 



NATIONAL ZOOLOGY. 21 



CHAPTER II. 

National Zoology. 

In the cumbersome alphabets of ancient times, 
the roughly drawn figures of animals were used 
as hieroglyphic symbols. Since abstract qual- 
ities could not be literally pictured to the eye, 
they were typified by the forms of the animals 
that were supposed to possess them. The fox be- 
came the emblem of cunning, the owl of wisdom, 
and the lion of courage. 

There is a system of hieroglyphics still in uni- 
versal use. Nations delight to display themselves 
in animal imagery. They select certain of the 
nobler birds and quadrupeds as symbols of their 
favorite attributes. 

The eagle has been honored above all birds, 
in being most frequently chosen as a national rep- 
resentative. In many nations he has been eleva- 
ted to this position by unanimous suffrage. He 
lias fulfilled the duties of his office to universal 
satisfaction. He lias not shared the fate of other 
office-holders. No partisan press has hurled 
anathemas against him, or held up his private 
and public life to the contempt of mankind. 



22 THE BODY POLITIC. 

Although the office is elective, it has been kept 
in the aquiline family, and handed down from 
one generation to another, as a kind of heredi- 
tary right. 

The Tuscans sought on one occasion to confer 
a compliment on the young and sturdy State of 
Kome, whose friendship, they presumed, might 
some day grow to he of value. They cast about 
to devise Borne delicate and Bentimental mode of 
bestowing flattering attention. They could think 
of nothing more suitable than an ivory eagle, 

standing on a Bcepter, leaving the interpreta- 
tion of the symbol to the discernment of the 

Roman people. They would have shown them- 
selves exceedingly obtuse, and anomalous among 
men. if they had heen unahle to comprehend a 
compliment. "With a facility always character- 
istic of the Roman people, in appropriating to 
themselves whatever would augment their gran- 
deur, they adopted the eagle as the standard of 
the Republic. At first it was roughly carved 
in wood; afterward it was made of silver, and 
held in its talons golden thunderbolts. At length 
it became a golden eagle, and thus was borne 
before the conquering legions of the Empire. 

When all the Roman standard-bearers had 
fallen before their enemies, or fled from the field 
of battle, their ornithological symbol was seized 



NATIONAL ZOOLOGY. 23 

by other nations. None, however, have borne it 
so worthily as America. Never has " the proud 
bird of our country 1 ' come to dishonor. 

The American eagle differs little from that of 
Eome, being but a different species of the same 
pugnacious and aspiring family. While the So- 
man eagle sat calmly on the staff, in the thickest 
of the battle, as if noting the progress of the 
strife, ours displays a more uneasy and restless 
spirit. His wings are expanded, and he bends 
with protecting solicitude over a shield, whereon 
are painted stripes and stars. In his talons, he 
bears a bundle of commingled thunderbolts and 
arrows, wherewith, on provocation, he may vin- 
dicate his warlike prowess. This bird has not 
forgotten its Soman extraction, nor the lan- 
guage in which its ancestors used to hear the 
commands of imperial officers, for it bears in its 
beak a motto, in the Latin tongue, " E pluribus 
Uhum." 

Great Britain's representative in the Natural 
History of Nations is the Lion — the animal de- 
scribed to our youthful fancy as " King of 
Beasts" — whose roar startles the wilderness like 
thunder; of whose lordly attributes all animals 
stand in awe; wfcoee bones are of texture so com- 
pact as to strike fire with steel; whose muscles 
are like iron bands. 



24 THE BODY POLITIC. 

Of great daring and spirit must be the nation 
claiming such an animal as a correct embodiment 
of its power and disposition. Did a pusillanimous 
people adopt such an emblem, they would gain 
the contempt of other nations, and re-enact the 
celebrated iEsopean scene of the ass in lion's 
skin. 

Great Britain has never been guilty of conduct 
inconsistent with the character of this royal beast. 
On many memorable occasions, the British 7. ion 
Jias broken from his cage and carried dismay to 
other beasts in the menagerie of nations. A uteri - 
cans, however, are by no means unanimous in the 
opinion that the British Lion is unconquerable. 
Fourth of July orators describe two occasions of 
his discomfiture, when ''The American Eagle 
drove back the British Lion to his lair." 

Chanticleer, songful bird of the morning, and 
bloody champion of barn-yard battles, is the 
adopted fowl of France. With haughty mien 
he walks at the head of the feathered inhabitants 
of the farm, and woe to the unhappy rival that 
dares to dispute his sway. 

The Gallic Cock is the most pugnacious of his 
race. He is so fond of fighting that he never 
allows himself to lose an opportunity of display- 
ing his belligerent abilities. Whether led forth 
to the arena by a Bonaparte or a Bourbon, he i» 



NATIONAL ZOOLOGY. 25 

the sumo spirited, plucky and pugnacious fowl. 
His shrill clarion has often summoned nations 
to the field of combat, whereon lias been decided 
the momentous question of relative elevation upon 
the dung-hill of national grandeur. Xo reverses 
avail to put an end to his pertinacity. Even 
when he is conquered, his note sounds scarcely 

H loud and triumphant than the complacent 
crow of victory. When an adversary flies before 
him. no adequate idea can be conveyed of his 
demonstrations of satisfaction. He leaps upon 
the old and long-respected boundary-fence, and 
regales the world with martial music, expn 
in his best melody and measure. He struts 
abroad in other inclosures, wishing to demon- 
strate everywhere that he is " Cock of the Walk" 

Taiwan Monroe, an American of some celebrity, 
a few y< ar> ago built a fence which was designed 
to exclude all the birds and beasts of European 
nation-* from building nests or making dens in 
America. It was made the duty of the Ameri- 
ca n Eagle to see that no unruly creature should 
break d«>wn or overleap this barrier. The guard 
having been lately called down from his lofty 
perch, to settle a domestic difficulty, the Gallic 
Cock embraced his opportunity to overleap the 
allotted limit, and led his feathered retinue into 
Mexico. MnchtotbediBtearbance of French equa- 
3 



26 THE BODY TOLITIC. 

nimity,our domestic troubles have come to a close, 
and the Gallinaceous fowl seriously contemplates 
a return to his ancient barn-yard. Should he 
manifest reluctance to go back, pur redoubtable 
Eagle may feel called upon to lend the aid of his 
beak and talons. 

The animal representative of Russia is the 
Bear, whose affectionate embrace has proven fatal 
to many a poor province that has fallen in his 
way. Seldom has the Russian Bear a season of 
hibernation. His vigilant eye is continually 
open, and his jealous heart is always astir. If 
another national beast gathers more spoil than 
himself, the congratulatory salutation which 
greets his ear, is an unamiable growl from the 
gruff Bear of Russia. He has a plantigrade step 
and an ungainly gait, from which the other ani- 
mals find some amusement, when they are at a 
safe distance; but, in his presence, they are 
solemn and silent, out of respect for his great 
strength and ungraceful temper. 

Napoleon Bonaparte tried the old and now 
unpopular amusement of Bear-baiting, but he 
found it an expensive and unprofitable pastime 
He stirred up an adversary that did not cease 
pursuit until he found a refuge among the rugged 
rocks of St. Helena. 



NATIONAL BRUTALITY. 27 



CHATTER III. 

N ATIDNAL B B UTILITY, 

Since nations have imbruted themselves and 
debased their natures to a level with four-footed 
beasts and creeping things, it is proper that they 
should be impersonated by animals; and beset 
for tli as a menagerie of wild beasts for the 
amusement of mankind. The spectators have 
been greatly amused by the exhibition. When 
any deed of extraordinary fierceness has been 
performed, the applause of the multitude has 
made the world resound. The wise and the 
a- well as the foolish and unthinking, have 
sometimes been carried away by the prevailing 
enthusiasm. 

In ancient times fair and gentle ladies were 
wont to sit in the amphitheater of Home, and 
behold with delight the bloody combats of 
gladiators with wild beasts. When an unusually 
hideoltfl wound was inflicted, they waved their 
fair hands in token of unwomanly delight. 

A- a Obnseqnence of the diffusion of Chris- 
tianity, there is less of bloodt hirst iness in the 

masses of modem times, and yet there seems to 



28 THE BODY POLITIC. 

be a great disposition to glorify the deeds of war, 
no matter whether performed in holy or unholy 
cause. The hero of a wicked faction, in an un- 
godly war, is lauded by men for what they are 
pleased to call his gallantry, when he should 
rather be consigned to the dungeon or the halter 
for his unparalleled treason, and cold-blooded 
murders. 

While the multitude have cast garlands of 
flowers around the necks of the victorious beasts 
of war, and while the most have had eyes of 
admiration fixed upon the bloody monster walk- 
ing in triumph, a few Florence Nightingales have 
bethought them of his victims, and have stolen 
quietly away to the bloody arena of battle to 
allay the fever and stanch the ghastly wounds. 
Alas, such ministering angels stand like bending 
reeds in the fiercely rushing torrent of blood. 

Nations have no heart to feel, and take their 
chief delight in keeping open the perennial faun- 
tain of human gore. The most of that which 
purports to be history, is but a record of animal 
strength and warlike deeds. Being a narrative 
of deeds more appropriate to wild beasts than to 
men, it would be more consistently entitled Nat- 
ural History, were not its incidents too revolt- 
ing for the pleasing pages of a book devoted to 
"Animated Nature." 



NATIONAL BRUTALITY. 29 

While nations, in preparation for their grand 
masquerade, have been choosing the animal 
masks in which they are pleased to appear, we 
do not wonder that the claims of some very amia- 
ble animals are overlooked. The more praise- 
worthy and useful the animal, the less likelihood 
hflfl he of waring the honors of national dis- 
tinguish ment. Other things being equal, the 
more useless, and even dangerous, the animal 
the more surely will it rise to be conspicuously 
paraded on a national escutcheon. Such being 
national taste and usage, it is easy to account for 
the obscurity and neglect in which certain very 
useful animals have lived and labored for cen- 
turies. True, the ancient Egyptians were an ap- 
preciative people, and honored the sober and 
a virtues of the ox, by rendering him wor- 
ship, a pitch of respect which modern nations 
have scarcely reached, even with the worst ani- 
mals which they have selected as the objects of 
their admiration. It must be remarked, how- 
. that worship with the old and thoughtless 
Egyptians was of little more value than a casual 
•d morning!" or a '-How do you do?" with 
for they performed their pious prost rations 
neh unworshipful weeds as leeks and 
on ions. 



30 THE BODY POLITIC. 

The horse has been sometimes honored with a 
place in national heraldry, but not until he has 
been unharnessed from the plow, and rtfiloaeod 
from the shaft of the laboring wain, and has come 
forth caparisoned for war, "his neck clothed with 
thunder, scenting the battle afar off." 

It seems strange that no nation has shown so 
true a sense of self-appreciation as to adopt the 
donkey as the embodiment of national propen- 
sity. He has been long before the public, and 
his peculiar qualities arc well known. JSsop 
honored him two thousand years ago, by making 
him the medium of communicating some of his 
wisest and most useful lessons. His mighty 
voice has enlivened every civilized land with 
his questionable music. His "deep-toned b*M 
in nature's anthem " is easily recognized by all 
lovers of the harmony of sweet sounds, even 
though their "ears for music" are of proportions 
far inferior to those which adorn the head of his 
asinine highness. 

Though the peculiar graces of mind and body 
possessed by this animal are familiar to the 
masses, yet his claims have never been suffi- 
ciently considered by national zoologists. His 
qualities are not of that showy kind which at- 
tract the attention of kings and senates. If ho 



NATIONAL BRUTALITY. 31 

wore possessed of claws, instead of hoofs, and 
earniverous teeth instead of thistle-grinding 
molars, his long ears, and other odious bodily 
and intellectual attributes, would prove no ob- 
stacle to his wearing the honors of national 
distinction. 



THE BODY POLITIC. 



CHAPTER IV. 

National Humanity. 

Science reveals the fact that for many centu- 
ries before man's advent, the globe was inhabited 
by inferior orders of creation. Long before man 
stood forth, the crowning work of his Creator's 
hand, beasts of the forests and monsters of the 
sea had the earth as their undisputed empire. 

No intelligent ereature had appeared to claim 
dominion over the earth and subdue its wild 
inhabitants. Creatures of gigantic size lay with 
their monstrous lengths " for many a rood" along 
the sea, roamed the wilderness, or wheeled their 
drony flights through the murky atmosphere. 

Generation after generation came and went, 
before a spark of intellectual fire was smitten 
from the rugged matter which composed the 
earth. No sound of intelligent voice broke the 
silence of the wilderness ; no smoke of domestic 
fire curled through the forest; no keel of com- 
merce rippled the lonely river or plowed the 
solitary seas. 

This state of things did not endure. Creation 
was not complete with mere animal existence. 



NATIONAL HUMANITY. 33 

The era of higher life arrived at length. The 

final act of creating power was nobler and more 
godlike than all that had gone before. A nobler 
and more beaut iiul form than any that had be- 
fore appeared, walked under the green trees of 
Paradise. 

A hand, guided by intellect, shaped habitations 
and made highways on the earth. Thought at 
length had its high manifestations and perma- 
nent dwelling-place in the world. 

Human government has had a history analo- 
gous to that of the globe. Man's arduous and 
unsuccessful attempts at government, seem a re- 
enactment of the beastly epochs of geologic 
tinn 

We have seen how nations have taken image- 
)T themselves from the animal world, and 
Ikav well their symbols coincide with their char- 
acters. 

The human age of government is at last begun. 
A creation has been made which marks a new 
era in the social and political history of man- 
kind. In constructing the world. God suffered 
many centuries to elapse after He began the 
work of creation, before making a creature 
aft'T His own image. Thus many years eame 
and went, and man was content with inferior 
forms of government. He gave them all more or 



34 THE BODY POLITIC. 

less of beastly shape. At last man has construct- 
ed a government after his own likeness, one that 
is endowed with human attributes. It has an 
upright body, and clearer manifestations of in- 
tellect than any that have gone before. Having 
been constructed on a better model, it is nearer 
political perfection than any predecessor. 

The American people, in the construction of 
their government, were not careful to follow the 
models of antiquity. Had they adopted any 
other government as their example, the body pol- 
itic would inevitably have borne the u mark of 
the beast." 

The Israelites in the wilderness had a pleasing 
recollection of the delightful tasks and whole- 
some seourgings of their amiable Egyptian mas- 
ters. They had a vivid recollection also of their 
intellectual, and ennobling devotions, when they 
prostrated themselves before the sacred ox. 
Hence when, in the absence of Moses, they at- 
tempted to frame a theology for themselves, they 
had before their imagination Egypt's venerated 
quadruped. "When they cast gold into the fire, 
there came forth a near resemblance to the wor- 
shipful ox of Egypt, which they called a calf. 
With so much indignation and contempt did 
Moses regard the impotent idol, that he conceived 
it good for nothing but to be ground to powder, 



NATIONAL HUMANITY. 35 

and mingled as a wholesome and medicinal drink. 
Moses had enough knowledge of materia medica 
to know that such a decoction would prove a 
powerful purgative of tolly. 

The Israelites, in their experiment with the 
calf have given illustration of the principle that 
when people yield themselves in blind obedience 
to the past, their theologies, their governments, or 
whatsoever they endeavor to construct, will 
simply be diminutive, and imperfect repetitions 
of obsolete follies. 

The founders of the American government 
were creators, rather than imitators. By their 
bold reflections, and simultaneous wielding of 
the sword, they cut the Gordian knot by which 
they were tied to ancient forms and usages. 

With backs forever on the past, and eyes wise- 
ly fixed upon the future, they walked forth to 
their great work. "With firm reliance on Al- 
mighty God," they took in their skillful hands 
the plastic clay. They knew themselves. They 
recognized manhood in humanity, and molded 
their materials after the pattern thereof. They 
so constructed the beautiful body that every 
member might have free use of all its powers, 

The craftsmen, whose cunning hands con- 
structed our commonwealth, were unwilling to 
stop short with a bodily form. A body without 



36 THE BODY POLITIC. 

a soul, even had it been of human proportions, 
would have been little better than the grovel- 
ing creations of past unskillfulness. There was 
no need of a new creation that the frame-work 
of American government should be inhabited by 
a living soul. Freedom granted to individual 
minds, and a proper care directed to their devel- 
opment, procured the existence of a public mind 
of sufficient vigor of understanding and matu- 
rity of wisdom to animate the body politic. 

No magician was called upon to evoke some 
ghastly shadow of the past. No dead and buried 
majesty of antiquity was Minnnoned from the 
tomb to lend the glittering phosphorescence of 
decay to sightless eyeballs. 

No galvanic batteries of vast standing armies 
were constructed to create spasmodic motions of 
electrical force, which would be but the feeble 
imitations of real life. 

The living and present people were thought 
to have surplus mind enough, after devoting all 
needful attention to their private ends, to ani- 
mate the State with a healthy and vigorous 
intellect. There seemed no need of a special 
intellect whose only office should be to think 
for the nation, and spend its years in devis- 
ing schemes to achieve royal renown. The 
carrying on of government was rightly regarded 



NATIONAL BRUTALITY. 37 

as requiring no higher thoughts than a free and 
intelligent people could easily conceive, if left 
entirely to their own resources. The crowning 
glory of our country i< its mind, which charac- 
terizes it as the first specimen of national man- 
hood the world has ever seen. Being the work 
of a finite and fallen being, and being constructed 
in the image of its creator, it has. of necessity, 
much imperfection. Nevertheless it is far supe- 
rior to all "four-footed beasts and creeping 
things.'' 



38 THE BODY TOLITIC. 



CHAPTER V. 
Infancy of the Nation. 

In ancient times nations were neglected in 
their childhood, and left to struggle along up 
through infantile feebleness, without any well- 
timed assistance and wholesome encouragement. 
There was no presentiment of future greatness, 
hence no careful record was made of the smart 
sayings and precocious deeds of early years. The 
moss of forgetfulness was allowed to grow over 
the juvenile footsteps. Origin and parentage 
were often utterly forgotten. The old nations 
were all foundlings. 

The Muse of history looked with indiffer- 
ence upon their unpromising childhoods. After 
awhile the performance of remarkable exploits 
attracted attention, and threw luster over all pre- 
ceding actions, but the forgetful Muse strove in 
vain to recall events of the past, which she had 
neglected to "make a note of." Imagination 
was called upon to supply a childhood, which, of 
course, would be made of similar web and woof 
to that of which later life was woven, but of far 
more brilliant coloring. The record of the in- 



INFANCY OF THE NATION. 39 

fancy of ancient nations is made up of mythical 
and incredible tales. 

Nations whose birth has fallen upon recent 
centuries have been more fortunate. Every one 
has bad an early and egotistical opinion of 
present importance and prospective greatness. 
With a presentiment of the interest which would 
in future gather around their names and fortunes, 
they have employed historians to make a record 
of events as they transpired. With scrupulous 
exactness they have made contemporary record 
of the progressing life. 

Many of these historians have fallen into the 
error of describing the acts of youthful nations 
in language appropriate only to the greater 
achievements of maturer Strength. Hercules is 
made to kill so many Lernean Hydras and clean 
so many Augean stables in his childhood, that 
no heroic labors are left for manhood. These 
enthusiastic chroniclers deserve the criticism 
which Goldsmith made on Dr. Johnson, that 
in his stories he made his minnows talk like 
whales. 

DM men are said to be so unfortunate as 
never to have had a childhood. They entered 
a dusty road in their early years, and found 
themaelrei bowed beneath a burden of prema- 
ture thoughtfulness and care, when they ought 



40 THE BODY POLITIC. 

to have been musical with childish laughter, 
skipping gaily through the meadows in sua M h 
of butterflies and flowcr>. 

A happy childhood is an indispensable pivj mi- 
ration for a good and prosperous life, it Li an 
exhaustless treasury, whence happiness may he 
drawn to solace the dark hours of the future. 
A parent who does not strive to surround his 
child with circumstances which shall he sources 
of pleasant memories, wrongs his offspring, and is 
recreant to his trust. 

Nothing is so prophetic of great national im- 
portance as a genuine youthful childhood. The 
ancient fables say that soldiers sprang up fully 
armed and equipped from the dragon "s teeth 
sown by Cadmus; and .Minerva leaped fuil- 
grown and panoplied from the hrain of .love; hut 
nations have no such ahrupt maturity. Their 
day has a gradual dawn, their growth is slow 
and steady. When they have reached the me- 
ridian of greatness they can sometimes look back 
on centuries of infancy. 

The American Nation has been blessed with a 
long and happy childhood. This delightful pe- 
riod began in 1607, in the woods which shaded 
the shores of the Chesapeake. The range of its 
rambles was wide, and very soon reached from 
Cape Cod to the coast of Carolina. 



INFANCY OF THE NATION. 41 

While the infant nation might have seemed to 
the casual observer to be employed in the thought- 
pursuit of temporary happiness, it was really 
employed in most diligent preparation for the im- 
portant duties of coming ages. Before the seven- 
teenth century had passed, the broad foundations 
of freedom and national unity had been laid. 

The opening of the last quarter of the eight- 
eenth century witnessed our final separation from 
the mother country, yet this was not an end of 
our national childhood. It is not consistent with 
popular ideas of our national longevity, to sup- 
pose that we have passed through our juvenile 
period and arrived at maturity. Our national 
childhood, begun under pleasing auspices, is still 
in its happy continuance. Though our nation 
is no longer under legal restraints, nor obligations 
to a mother country, yet she still wears the vi- 
vacity and verdancy of youth. She is young 
in heart and young in way-. 

Iu our attempts to imitate our elders, we mani- 
;he moods and ways of infancy. All tho 
attainments of childhood are gained by careful 
attention to what others do, and diligently fol- 
lowing example. Originality in thought and 
deed pertains to maturer years. To such years 
our country has not yet attained. Our fashions 
and our manners are carefully formed on Paris 
4 



42 THE BODY POLITIC. 

models. Our "lions" must pass the ordeal of 
European exhibition before they become '-the 
rage " in America. A tamer of horses, or a player 
of chess, is unnoticed among us, until he gains I 
European renown. A single breath of foreign 
fame wafts its happy recipient to the pinnacle of 
American celebrity. An American books best 
recommendation is its republication in England, 
or its translation into some obscure dialect of 
the continent. To say of an author that he has a 
"European reputation'' is to give him apotheo- 
sis in America. A trip to Europe ifl the "royal 
road" to excellence, the very existence of which 
highway, a few centuries since, was prematurely 
and unadvisedly denied. Hereby education is 
"finished." and health restored and fortified for 
the remainder of life. To our distant and onprae- 

tieed eyes the old world is full of beautiful and 
splendid things, set up as Lessons for OUT learning 
and models for our imitation. We gratulate or 
vilify ourselves in proportion as we approach or 
fall below those great examples. 

After all, the ability to imitate and the capa- 
bility of being molded on good models, is one 
of the most hopeful peculiarities of childhood. 
It is some assurance of future national greatness 
that we are capable of honestly appropriating 
the excellencies of other nations. When maturer 



INFARCT OF THE NATION. 43 

wisdom shall direct us to select for imitation 
only what is good among foreign institutions, wo 
shall pursue our highway to greatness without 
making any sidelong steps. 

Children sometimes disagree concerning the 
{Ownership of toys, and strive to maintain their 
fancied rights in unamiable ways. America and 
her sister nations have been involved in numer- 
ous childish quarrels. She had a scramble with 
Great Britain for the largest slice of the North- 
west; she wanted " Fifty-four forty," but finally 
sat down by the Columbia river, in pouting 
mood, because she got but "Forty-nine," 

Those 'little hands," which the didactic poet 
teaches, ('were never made" for tho discoloration 
of eyes, were used by her in a very unamiablo 
way against her little sister Mexico, until she 
was induced, greatly against her will, to surren- 
der Texas, New Mexico and California, 

Afl is natural in childhood, our chief efforts 
have hitherto been given to the promotion of 
bodil}' and material interests. Sallust compla- 
cently said, that with himself and fellow- Romans 
the body was servant and the mind was ruler. 
A- a nation, we have not yot reached such eleva- 
tion. Our infantile body is clamorous in the 
tion of its claims. It bids mind and soul 
stand aside until its own demands are satisfied. 



44 THE BODY POLITIC. 

Private and personal childhood is given a hu- 
man being that he may have a lew leisure jrttfi 
in which to gather up a body from earth, air, 
water, or what source soever suitablo material 
may be found. All the infantile hours are mo- 
nopolized in reaching this great end of juvenile 
creation. 

"What is the great end of civat ion?" the phi- 
losophers inquire, and produce many learned lu- 
cubrations in eliciting their answers. -To bo 
happy," says one; "To do good," exclaims an- 
other; '\To glorify God," responds a third. 
While older and wiser heads are thus oceupie<l 
with logical prelections and philosophic doubts, 
children give practical -and instinctive answers to 
the question as applied to them; showing plainly 
that they suppose their childhood was given them 
for three important ends: to eat, to sleep, to play. 
Not until the body has grown to considerable 
length and breadth (foes the mind dare to make 
any confident assertion of its claims. Then the 
vocal organism, which had been principally ex- 
ercised in clamoring for bodily bread, begins to 
demand intellectual food, asking questions and 
seeking answers to satisfy the mind. 

Our national concern has hitherto principally 
regarded material interests. Our absorbing em- 
ployments have been the improvement of our 



INFANCY OF THE NATION. 45 

form of government, the organisation of territo- 
ries and the admission of States. AYhen our 
territory shall have arrived at its ultimate en- 
largement, when population shall have oecupied 
all our vacant territory, when the machinery of 
government shall operate everywhere without 
unnecessary friction, we shall be more favorably 
situated fur intellectual labors. Then, if wealth 
and pride have not brought upon us fatal indo- 
lence, and if vice has not destroyed our mental 
and moral energies, we shall prove ourselves 
more than a match for u aU comers" in the in- 
tellectual arena. 

This being our ambition, it behooves us to 
give early attention to the means by which we 
shall accomplish our purposes. Xo man ever 
made high attainments in any intellectual pur- 
suit who did not have his mental energies aroused 
in early life. If youth is spent in thoughtless- 
and with unconcern for books and teachers, 
the mature]- years will be occupied in reaching 
the groveling ends of mere animal existence. 

Aftpiring, as we do, to the high career of an 
intellectual nation, we should now give attention 
to >tudious pursuits, and not leave letters to be 
the occupation of declining years when we have 
me superannuated in commerce, diplomacy 
and war. 



46 THE BODY POLITIC. 



CHAPTER VI, 

Modes of National Growth. 

There is a mystery in growth. There is a 
problem unexplained in the blade of gram which 
lends its little aid in weaving for the earth a 

carpeting of green. There arc powers therein, 
which so cunningly combine the elements of na- 
ture, that the closest scrutiny can not detect the 
secret by which they perform the mirach 
growth. 
The boy, whose hands are about to graep the 

eggs in the birdsnest, thinks not that lie is break- 
ing a link in the golden chain of lite. Did he 
withhold his hand, lite would soon spring up 
within those fragile shells; and, at last, bright - 
plumaged birds would break forth to sing among 
the trees. Untaught, he would as soon suppose 
that the marble with which he plays would some 
day take wings and arouse him from his morn- 
ing slumbers with a song. He learns that there 
is a difference, however, and inquires how and 
why the egg becomes a bird. The oracle — 
whether parent or teacher — to whom he refers, 
gives him an answer but little more lucid or sat- 



MODES OF NATIONAL GROWTH. 47 

isfaetory than the response of the Delphic ora- 
cle of old. His wise instructors have some 
technicalities at their tongues' ends, which pass 
for reasons and explanations, but in real under- 
standing of the mystery they are but little in 
advance of the childish questioner. 

The philosophy of the growth of nations is 
not so intricate and profound as that which 
relates to animal and vegetable life. The ele- 
ments which enter into national growth are more 
conspicuous, their workings are more apparent. 
The operation has more of a mechanical charac- 
ter, and less of the subtle and the chemical. 
There is no mysterious working of a "vital 
force," which has been supposed to have an ac- 
tive agency in counteracting the ordinary course 
of natural causes in the animal body. An effect 
i> usually developed near its cause, so that the 
least observing eye can scarcely fail to trace the 
connecting links. In the individual, effect often 
follows cause at a laggard pace, and comes up 
many years behind. Wild oats may be sown in 
youth with laborious hand, and cultivated with 
laons care, and yet many years elapse before 

- >wer bears in his bosom the sheaves of har- 
reaped in the whirlwind. "The indiscre- 

- of youth." said Franklin, "are drafts on 
old age, payable thirty years after date." 



48 THE BODY POLITIC. 

National obligations to meet the consequences 
of indiscretion can not be deferred. They are 
due at date, and are presented for immediate 
payment. Consequently it is easy to trace the 
causes which harm a State, as well as to perceive 
the results of beneficial measures. They are the 
favorite topics of politicians and paragraphists 
in the papers. In the evil results of a mischiev- 
ous measure, which is working out its speedy 
consequences before their eyes, they see I great 
supply of political capital fitted for immediate 
use. While the deadly nightshade of yesterday's 
planting and to-day's fruit-bearing, is still lux- 
uriant, they hasten to display it to the prejudice 
of the person or the party that east the seed. 

If these same declaimers have done some acci- 
dental good to the State, although they may have 
been entirely innoeent of such intent, they are 
not less eloquent in praise of the hardy plant of 
utility which has sprung up in their paths and 
under their crushing footsteps. 

Ages were unnecessary to bring to light the 
disastrous effects of George the Third's insane 
policy toward America. Beneath his scepter, 
and in one of the years of his own life, his king- 
dom was bereft of its fairest colonies. The Ter- 
rorists of France did not have their patience ex- 
ercised with waiting for children's children to 



MODES OF NATIONAL QSOWTH. 49 

rise up and claim the bloody inheritance secured 
by the conduet of their fathers. They were 
themselves ingulphed in seas, which were poured 
out upon France by clouds of their own brewing. 
Peter the Great did not die without the sight of 
the happy results of his royal policy. Washing- 
ton and his compatriots lived to sit for many 
years under the Tree of Liberty which they 
planted. 

Since, in national affairs, causes are so soon 
developed into unmistakable effects, there is lit- 
tle difference of opinion concerning past policy. 
Measures which were once advocated and op- 
posed with a fervor so intense as to array the Na- 
tion into two great hostile parties, that contend- 
ed as for life and death, are now considered as so 
evidently good or bad as to leave no room for 
difference of opinion. We sometimes wonder at 
the obtuseness of our good ancestors, w r hich led 
them to the earnest advocacy or opposition of 
political doctrines, concerning whose excellence 
or evil all grown Americans are now unanimous. 

Present and future policy is the rock on which 
wc split. Here contingencies arise which cause 
fcfcflN mighty disagreements, which shall make 
one side or the other stand in a ridiculous atti- 
tude before posterity. Wc are not in m favora- 
ble a position for Boeing the years just before us 



50 THE BODY POLITIC. 

as will be our posterity, who may turn and look 
backward. There are a great many opaque 
bodies standing in the way. which hinder and 
obstruct our eyesight. We think we are right, 
and pluck up courage to "go ahead; 91 yet, amid 
the doubts and perplexities which bewilder us, 
we would give a kingdom could we peer into 
the future. 

What policies shall best promote our advance- 
ment as a nation, are Vexed questions, concerning 
which the "doctors disagree." To settle these 
weighty and important issues, street-corners are 
made vociferous with debate, and newspapers 
are filled with diffuse disputations. 

The safest and most beautiful mode of na- 
tional growth is seen where 'olive plants 9 ? 
spring up thickly in family homes. It does the 
State no harm if they grow in such close and 
shady contiguity as to present some obstacles to 
one another's uplifting trunks and spreading 
branches, since this may lead to their trans- 
plantation to unoccupied regions, where there is 
room for the penetration of their roots and the 
expansion of their limbs. 

This is the best and safest mode of national en- 
largement. Even Home, whose chief growth was 
from other sources, was pleased to see the in- 



MODES 09 NATIONAL GROWTH. 51 

crease of her population in this natural way. 
Citizens who were heads of large families were 
considered benefactors of the State. Legal dis- 
abilities were imposed upon those incorrigible 
specimens of perverseness who, in spite of na- 
ture and reason, persisted in singleness. Sem- 
pronia. the Roman matron, has secured to her- 
self honorable mention in history by her cel- 
ebrated exhibition of juvenile jewels, which she 
considered superior in value to the hoarded 
treasures displayed by her friend. Although the 

ah of Eome. as promoted by the sword, was 
unhealthy, yet. while such sentiments were cher- 

I by her matrons, she could not mil to have 
a fountain of perpetual health and soundness in 
her heart 

r normal mode of national enlargement 

i> immigration. When a nation is as new. as 

. and prosperous as ours, this stream of popu- 

D will bear toward it with a current deep 
and wide. We would act the part of folly to 
place any obstruction to the free flowing of this 

It was numbered among the chief crimes com- 
mitted against our forefathers by British tyranny 
that Parliament refused to pass laws for the nat- 
uralization of foreigners, and hindered their im- 



52 THE BODY POLITIC. 

migration hither. The colonies could not consent 
to forego so important a means of growth. This 
has been one of the chief ways by which the Re- 
public has reached its present greatness. 

For her healthy growth, it is not RMMMIT 
that our country should rely on the productions 
indigenous to her own soil. She may tind vigor 
in the judicious use ofibreign food, The growth 
of Ireland and Germany should be cast into our 
naturalization mill, and ground as rapidly M ii 
consistent with thorough work, and stamped with 
the brand " American." The aliment produced by 
such a process is of that nutritious kind whieh 
is greatly productive of muscular development in 
the body politic. 

These modes of growth have proven too slow 
for our fast country. She lias re^Tted to the 
more rapid means of annexation. Perceiving 
how slow a work it is. by natural and ordinary 
means, to "add one cubit to her stature.' ' she has 
committed the extravagance of putting blocks on 
her head to increase her bight. She emulates 
the aspiring damsels of Queen Elizabeth's day, 
who added to their apparent stature by raising 
edifices of paper, paste, and vegetation on their 
heads. Like the fictitious and diminutive Fal- 
staffs of the modern stau;e, who conceal their lack 



M0DS8 OF NATIONAL GROWTH. HI 

of Sir John's rotundity by the liberal use of pil- 
1, oar country has padded herself about with 
annexation?. 

If a State desires admission into the Ameri- 
can Union, and takes proper measures to attain 
the honor, philanthropy would dictate to us her 
reception with cordial welcome. Being endowed 
with blessings greater than any nation before us 
hasp 98088 1. it would be the bight of inhuman- 
ity for us to sit down and enjoy them alone, 
when the friendless outcast at our door is per- 
ishing with want. 
We need fear no dangerous results from an- 
ition. if it is brought about by our sincere 
prudent desire t<> extend the blessings of 
civil liberty, and not by a wicked passion for 
milil quest Annexation brought about 

by I -it motives will promote our natural 

tnd greatness. It lays more broad and 
the foundations of the temple of liberty, 
and throws its altar of refuge more widely open 
I of other shores. 
Our country takes an honest pride in con- 
lating her own growth and advancement. 
ra -h«* numbers her household and 
makes an inventory of her goods. She vends 
her officers, who penetrate cwvy nook and 



54 THE BODY POLITIC. 

corner of the land, and by their faithful report 
of what they have Been and heard, they enable 
the nation to know her own advancement dur- 
ing the ten years before. From the lessons 
taught by such statistics, she is more competent 
to rule the present, and prophesy the future. 



SUBSTANCE OF THE BODY POLITIC. 55 



CHAPTER VII. 

Of WHAT Si B8TAN01 THE BODY POLITIC CONSISTS. 

The wide domain of lite presents great variety 
of substance and structure. The lowest animals 
present the utmost simplicity and sameness of 
substance. Many marine animals, which cling 
to the naked rocks, and there spend an existence 
which can scarcely be called life, consist of mat- 
tor which appears, to the unassisted sight, unor- 
ganized. 

Higher life has more complicated structure, 

sting of the most dissimilar tissues and or- 

A^ the observer beholds the highest de- 

proent of life on earth, and sees its multiplied 

forme of matter arranged in beautiful proportion, 

Kclaims: 

•• Bow wonderful, how complicate is man!" 

The highest form of political life — our body 

; <- — is not of such simple structure that it 

may be comprehended in a casual glance. It 

t'a combination so curious and complex 

that men of thought have made it (he subject of 

life-long study. They have returned to its con- 



50 THE BODY POLITIC. 

templation day after day, through a long career, 
professing that every hour thus employed was 
laden with new knowledge. 

Men have come from distant lands to see it, 
and have written books in foreign languages to 
describe its form and workings. 

The particles which compose the body politic 
must be described in language very ditVeivnt 
from that employed by ehemists eoiiecrning the 
ultimate atoms of matter, which, they say. are 
"so small that they can neither be seen nor 
counted, even by means of the most powerful 
magnifying glass/' 

Individual citizens are the atoms which com- 
pose the body politic 

It is a theory in chemistry that the variety in 
the shape and size of atoms gives rise to the vari- 
ous forms and phenomena of substances. The 
atoms of hydrogen are supposed to be very 
small, and hence it escapes through membranes 
which interpose an effectual barrier to gases of 
coarser grain. Crystals have their beautiful 
geometrical shapes, always uniform in the same 
substance, from a property called polarity, which 
regulates the sides which they present, and the 
way in which they adhere to one another. Gum- 
elastic, petroleum, and illuminating gas have 
the same constituent elements — hydrogen and 



SUBSTANCE OF THE BODY POLITIC). 57 

carbon — of the same quality and equal quantity. 
That such different substances result from their 
combination is supposed to be due to the fact that 
the secret atoms, which elude scientific search, 
have certain properties and proclivities which 
determine the final form of the matter which 
they produce. They have their little tastes and 
affinities, which are very minute and unimportant 
in themselves, yet produce some marked and 
marvelous effects before the world. 

It is fully as unfortunate for an object, so far 
as human comprehension and appreciation of it 
are concerned, when it is too small to be seen, as 
when it is too far removed for visibility. The 
worlds — the one below the reach of micro- 
. and the other beyond the field of tele- 
1 — are both equally unknown. The inter- 
val imr universe, especially the wide domain 
within reach of our unassisted bodily powers, 
yields the richest harvest to investigation. 

Since the body politic consists of individual 
people, its elements are not so minute as to elude 
bservation of the student, and are constantly 
before him. demanding his attention. 

They will best understand the genius of the 
nation who are the most diligent in the study of 
human nature. When a statesman thoroughly 
knows himself and his neighbors, he has made 



58 THE BODY POLITIC. 

considerable acquaintance with the nation whose 
interest he is set forward to subserve. Knowing 
nations by the analogy of his own nature, and 
the deductions he draws from private character 
with which he comes in contact, he becomes a 
successful diplomatist or a wise ruler. 

While it may be an unsubstantiated theory 
that certain phenomena of matter are depend- 
ent on the character and arrangement of the 
atoms, it is a principle of absolute certainty that 
national character depends on the physical, in- 
tellectual, and moral condition of the lively and 
enfranchised atoms which compose the state. 

Subjects, not citizens, are the component atoms 
of a despotic state. People, in their noble indi- 
vidual characters, in their physical, mental, and 
moral manhood, are not constituents of sueh a 
state. Manly independence must be crushed, ami 
personal honor swallowed up in the ravenous and 
insatiate state, before they can be of service in pro- 
moting the interest and advantage of the despot- 
ism. Like Saturn in mythology, despotic states 
devour their children as soon as they are born. 

In a republic we may speak of the machinery 
of government, but such a term would be inap- 
propriate in describing a despotism. Machinery 
is too ingeniously contrived to typify a tyrannical 
government. A tool is the only available instru- 



SUBSTANCE 01 THE BODY POLITIC. 59 

men! in the hands of a tyrant. He may avail 
himself of a cabinet, a senate, or an army, but 

they are of use to him only as moans to maintain 
authority. 

Power restfl with the people, and can only bo 
used by them, or those upon whom it is by them 
bestowed. Man can not create power any more 
than he can create matter. When the steam- 
engine drags the ponderous train along the iron 
brack, or impels the oak-ribbed monster through 
the wave-, power is developed which was created 
"ii earth many thousands of years ago. This 
power had its birth in the beams of the ancient 
Mm, when they built up the luxuriant vegeta- 
arly periods. No human being then 
iac this power, and cause it to accom- 
purposes. But God did not allow it to 
run : Vegetation was caused to fall into 

a curious current of circumstances, by which it 
transformed to coal, and safely stored away 
ait the necessities of the human age. Now 
ibstanee is brought to light, and its hidden 
r applied to the accomplishment of human 
purposes. The giant has long slumbered, but has 
HO strength by inactivity. 
rashel of coal, with its energies all brought 
forth and properly applied, is adequate to rais- 
I million pounds one foot in hight. There 



60 THE BODY POLITIC. 

is not here a hair-breadth more nor less of power 
than existed a hundred thousand years ago in 
the sun's rays, and in the elements of earth and 
atmosphere which entered into the creation of 
the coal. 

All power Vit first existed alone with Almighty 
God. For the attainment of certain social and 
moral ends, he created man, and intrusted a 
measure of power to his hands. All men, origin- 
ally and by nature, share this gift of God in a 
degret well-nigh the same. If, subsequently, OM 
man rightfully possesses more power than his 
brethren, it is because they have hestowed it 
upon him, with the expectation that tiny shall 
thereby secure a greater good than by retaining 
it in their individual hands. 

No "divine right'' comes down upon kings 
directly from God. If they have authority from 
this High Source, it has reached them through 
the medium of the people. These are God's vice- 
gerents, superior to all popes and princes. Under 
the control of Providence, this power "putteth 
down one, and setteth up another." 

"Governments derive their just powers from 
the consent of the governed," sublimely spake 
our wise forefathers, in their immortal declara- 
tion. This "consent," withheld during so many 
dark and dreary centuries, has at last been given, 



SUBSTANCE OF THE BODY TOLITIC. 61 

and a government has been reared possessing 
"just powers." upon whose brow has been placed 
with glad acclaim the diadem of the world. 

The running together, the combination and 
cohesion of thirty millions of free, thoughtful, 
living atoms constitutes a •• royal power" in the 
world such as never adorned the succession of 
any princely house. 



62 THE BODY POLITIC. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

One Head Better than Two. 

A head is essential to corporeal life. The pos- 
session of this member, or an approximation to 

it in outward shape at least, has always been 
regarded as essential to citizenship. One of our 
favorite authors has amused us with the story of 
' ; The Headless Horseman." hut in actual life no 
one would think of appearing abroad, or laying 
any claims to consideration among his fellow-citi- 
zens, without sufficient attention to his toilet, to 
have his head in proper position. 

So essential to earthly health and happil 

has this member always appeared, that when a 
state has wished to give a last crowning mark 
of disapprobation to an offending subject, she has 
deprived him of his head. 

The ancients were accustomed to number 
armies and populations by the head, a method 
of enumeration used by us only in application to 
our flocks and herds. More spiritually inclined, 
we regard man's higher nature in our computa- 
tions, and in census tables we specify the num- 
ber of " souls " in a city or a state. 



ONI HEAD BETTER THAN TWO. 63 

It must not be supposed, however, that heads 
were held in greater honor in ancient times than 
now. Ancient philosophers were by no means 
unanimous in considering the head as the throne 
of reason, concerning which there is now scarcely 
a dissenting voice. Some supposed that the intel- 
lect had its seat in the heart, and some in the 
lungs; while others, with perhaps a greater num- 
ber of phenomena to substantiate their induc- 
tions, supposed that human thought originated 
in the stomach. 

Modern observers of human nature, with a 

unanimity truly creditable to their discernment, 

901 the head as the capital of the cor- 

system. Here, according to their phi- 

hy. the mind holds its court, and hence 

- forth commands which thrill the nervous 

the body. 

Our b«»dy politic, like every well-regulated 

-trin. is surmounted by a head, in 

i are concentrated our powers of thought, of 

will, and of action. Cerebral functions for the 

n are performed in a small city on the Po- 

The situation of our political head is 

;. and by no means favorable to sym- 

y and graceftllneBB of form. Since our 

political head was located, the nation has grown 

pidly in other directions, that all proportion 



G4 T1IE BODY POLITIC. 

and symmetry are lost. All modes of growth — 
natural increase, emigration and annexation, have 
operated to enlarge the West. J J ere the proypf) 
tion of the aged and intirm is relatively small. 
The population is in the bloom of youth and the 
vigor of maturity. The wide plains and luxuri- 
ant forests invite the hanly emigrant to make 
himself a home. The West has developed with 
amazing rapidity. At the Revolution the popu- 
lation of the United States did not extend more 
than the average of one hundred miles from the 
sea-coast. Now the region west of the Alle- 
ghanies, in territory and population, m vastly 
in preponderant'. 

When the United States Capital was estab- 
lished on the Potomac it was near the geograph- 
ieal center of the Cuion; now it is in the remote 
East. 

It is now time that the Capital should follow 
the star of empire, and move westward. It be- 
hooves our country to have her chief seat in the 
midst of her children, whence she may readily 
extend her wholesome protection, where her du- 
tiful sons may easily pay service and respect. 
They have gone into the wilderness and prepared 
the way for her; they have made the Weal 
habitable, and now invite her to make her home 
among them. 



ONE HEAD BETTER THAN TWO. 65 

Many Western cities might afford to the Gov- 
ernment a seat more honorable and more acces- 
sible than she now possesses. Their central 
positions, midway between the eastern and west- 
ern oceans, their rapid growth, the salubrity and 
healtht'ulness of their climates, the enterprise 
and intelligence of their populations recommend 
them as proper places for the nation's Capital. 
Their progress thus far shows that they have 
other foundation for prosperity than that which 
results from governmental patronage. Such are 
their agricultural and commercial resources, that 
they can live and flourish without the necessity 
that members of Congress should expend their 
entire salaries in maintaining the existence and 
promoting the prosperity of the town. 

To do service to the country, and receive 
honors at her hand, it should not be necessary 
for men to make long and tedious journeys to the 
obscure and distant town of Washington. Should 
the seat of government be removed therefrom, 
it would be visited by few save the curious trav- 
eler, whose eastern wanderings may have taught 
him to take delight in meditations among the 
rocks of Tyre and Nineveh, or in excursions on 
the Asphaltic Sea. that rolls its sluggish waves 
over the ancient cities of the plain. 

The voice of great majorities alone should 
6 



Gb TIIE BODY POLITIC. 

induce good men to go and sojourn there, even 
for the necessary purposes of legislation. Im- 
perative necessity alone should induce a man to 
expose his head to the dangers which throng the 
place. 

The patriot goes thither as a man would rush 
into a burning house to bear forth his | 
mother, if she lay in unconscious slumber beneath 
the falling rafters. Happy for him, if the gar- 
ments of his honor are not burned from his 
body; happy if some furious firebrand does not 
fall upon him. and so bruise him that he must 
go, like Sumner, seeking restoration in other 
lands. 

With a solemnity and sadness which w 
prophetical, Abraham Lincoln bade farewell to 
his neighbors, and left his peaceful home in Illi- 
nois, to which he was destined never to return 
alivo. He went not in obedience to the dictates 
of ambition, but because the voice of Duty, of 
the People and of God called upon him to un- 
dergo the peril. Making part of the journey in 
disguise, he succeeded in performing the peril- 
ous pilgrimage. Surrounded by enemies, secret 
and avowed, he was defended by the Providence 
which rendered the Father of his Country im- 
pervious to red men's bullets. When Lincoln's 
sublime work had grown to its full accomplish- 



ONE READ BETTER THAN TWO. G7 

ment. the protecting Hand was. fiuc i moment, 
lifted from his brow, and the evil genius of the 
place, ever watchful for opportunity, dealt the 
fatal bi<»w. and Abraham Lincoln fell a victim to 
the unhappy mi>take by which, many year- ago. 
the President pi the United States was doomed 
to make his abode in \Yashington. 

When Hercules of old went forth to destroy 
theLernean hydra, he found a unique specimen 
of natural history. This animal possessed re- 
markable tenacity of life, which greatly pro- 
j d the conflict and rendered the victory 
doubtful Aj >« " m as the hero's keen -edged blade 
re4 a head from the body, two would spring 
up to occupy its place. Every blow inflicted 
only multiplied the foe. The assistance of a 
faithful slave, who kept dowa the multiplying 
:.g the wounds with a red-h<>t 
iron, enable*! the hero to achieve at last the 
•rious victory. 
We deprecate any analogy between the hydra 
and our country. Better allow our national head 
. er to continue as of old. if by any attempt 
at removal two heads should spring up in place 
of one. 

The old adage, "Two head* are better than 

will nut hold true of our body politic. V<<r 

men to -day their h.ads together" in 



fi8 THE BODY POLITIC. 

friendly counsel may bring about a good result; 
but if they are filled with antagonistic thoughts, 
the contact can only result in conflict. The in- 
ferior and more muscular members are drawn 
into conflict, in which the head loses control, and 
the combatants rush to most deadly extremes, 
The fire, kindled by the heated and impetuous 
brains, blazes so furiously that it can not be ex- 
tinguished. 

in our national person, it were better to 
have some doubtful deliberations and contend- 
ing thoughts in an undivided head, than that two 
capitals should start up to espouse the champion- 
ship of opposing Sentiments, When one head 
guides and actuates the whole, no member can 
exert its power tO harm the body, as would be 
possible, were they ministers to execute the furi- 
ous behests of antagonistic minds. In the one 
ease, the instinct of self-preservation guards with 
a fiery sword every avenue of approach to the 
sacred and precious life, while in the other 
case the overmastering impulse of love, trans- 
formed to hate, urges the powers to extermin- 
ating war. 

Southern politicians endeavored to involve us 
in all the horrors of a divided nationality. They 
devised a marriage between slavery and state- 
rights, the fruit of which was as hideous as Mil- 



ONE HEAD BETTER THAN TWO. 69 

ton's monster Death, the offspring of Satan and 
Sin. For a considerable time the monster lay 
coiled in comparative security in the torrid 
el i mate of the cotton states. Being eovetous of 
the prestige which a northern habitation would 
bestow, it boldly put forward its slimy head, and 
laid it in the lap of Old Virginia. She was be- 
guiled by the serpent, and in her infatuation fed 
it with food which was needed to nourish her 
children. 

It is a matter of curious inquiry among Bible- 
readers how the serpent in Paradise was able to 
converse so humanly, and make so cunning a 
counterfeit of reason. Historians and statesmen 
in all time to come will wonder at the skillful im- 
itation of government that was gotten up in Kich- 
I. In Virginia, as in Paradise, there was a 
Mtanic influence behind the scenes, which fur- 
nished a portion of the impelling principle. 

The serpents head was bruised at last, and 
Virginia found herself with its dead carcass in 
her lap. but not before it had bitten many of her 
children to death, and blackened many of her 
brightest possessions w T ith its fiery breath. 

A mythological Btory runs that Jupiter was 
Once afflicted with a grievOUfl headache, and in 
hope of obtaining relict', he called upon Vulcan, 
the blacksmith of Olympus, to take an ax and 



70 THE BODY POLITIC. 

cleave his skull. Vulcan begged to be excused 
from the murderous deed, but at last complied 
with the request, and brought down the ax 
with all the might of his brawny arm upon the 
serene and lofty brow of Jove. The death whieh 
would have resulted to a mortal from sueh a 
summary and heroic practice of surgery did not 
ensue in this memorable instance. From the 
fracture in the skull there leaped forth a beautiful 
and majestic maiden, afterward called Minerva, 
and worshiped as the (ioddess of Wisdom. 

Not until the ax of rebellion came down upon 
our national head, and almost cleft the cranium 
asunder, did Wisdom, in noble form and shining 
armor, appear in our national councils. That the 
blow which produced this parturition did not 
prove fatal is a proof that the nation pos& 
great vitality and tenacity of life. Happy i> it 
for the nation and the world, that Wisdom, which 
provided for the freedom of the slave, did not 
prove to be a daughter of posthumous birth, 
born not in time to rescue her parent from the 
gravo, but only in season to shed unavailing 
tears over the burial-place. 



HARDNESS OF BONE. 71 



CHAPTER IX. 
Hardness of Boni Bsskhtial to Uprightness. 

In nothing do animal bodies differ more 

.ally than in the skeleton. Fruin the crea- 
ture if the sea. whose body consists of a viscid 

B, in which MMtfy a trace of flQUfttWtq sub- 
stance can be detected. Id the upright vertebrated 
animal known as man. jhnmrt every conceiva- 
ble variety of bony structure may be observed. 

ft, like the snail, carry their bones upon their 
'er. wh«»se delicate body unpro- 
tected could y endure the rough ways 
and rude alarms of thi- <rld. has his 
bones carefully made over into a bivalvular 
shell, which he wears during his sea-farirnr life, 
and never lay until he goes ashore to Mites 
upon his dietetical dutl- 

Man pursues a different course, and modestly 
keeps h> »n concealed beneath a d» 

l ior of cuticle and muscle. His lka& 
though v^rv useful in a mechanical point of view, 
is not esthetically beautiful. It ha- 
hind the scenes, where invisibly it main' 
the body in beautit'u and attitude. With 



72 THE BODY POLITIC. 

all its secret ghastliness, it goes forth into society, 
and assists in making the graceful bow of the 
exquisite, and the bewitching smile of the beauty. 

The skeleton owes its stiffness, whereby it is 
able to perform useful functions, to the very com- 
mon and well-known ingredient of lime. The 
limber, cartilaginous frame-work of early in- 
fancy is gradually supplied with this substantial 
material, until at length the skeleton has the 
compactness and solidity of stone. 

Some ingredient analogous to lime is necessary 
for the uprightnesss and solidity of the frame- 
work of the body politic. The body must be ca- 
pable of assuming a perpendicular position in 
case of an emergency. The lime of integrity 
and uprightness should enter into the composi- 
tion of the body politic, otherwise it is wholly of 
cartilaginous structure, and becomes as u a bow- 
ing wall and tottering fence." Without this in- 
gredient, the direful disease of moral and political 
"rickets" gets hold upon the frame. The bones, 
which should sustain the body in high and noble 
attitude, become as pliable as wax. The body 
totters beneath the weight of its own muscles, 
and lies prostrate, in a state of wretched imbe- 
cility. It has not strength and fortitude to es- 
cape the most imminent danger that impends, 
nor to make the least advance toward the great- 



HARDNESS OF BMW. 73 

est good that would bo within easy reach of 
Strong and sturdy limbs. It sees the furious wild 
boast prowling near, or the murderous highway- 
man approaching, without power to escape or 
It may ehanee to lie near the blessed 
pool, and see the angel <^f health come down to 
trouble the waters, but it has no power to step in 
and tost the healing virtue. It may even fall 
into the hands of wicked and ungrateful sons, 
who may revile it for remaining so long a useless 
burden on their hands. They may even consider 
it an act of piety to convey the helpless body to 
the muddy Ganges, which they worship, and cast 
it into the boisterous flood, while the wretched 
victim has not power to raise its hands to sup- 
plicate for mercy. 

When a state falls a victim to such disease, her 
activity is ended, her career is run. She is out- 
stripped in the path of glory by nations which 
once were far behind. Those that are H younger 
have her in derision.'' Beholders are amused by 
the ridiculous figure made by national dotage and 
decline, for it is well known that there is not, 
in the history of nations, as in the lives of indi- 
viduals, a time when, by law <>f nature, second 
childhood must come on. When nations enter 
upon such a state, they do it >imply in obedience 
7 



74 THE BODY POLITIC. 

to a law by which sins and errors eventually 
reap their certain retribution. 

No nation presents a picture of such complete 
prostration and imbecility as Spain. She, who 
once walked abroad in uprightness and vigor, 
and was known and honored the world over, is 
now a melancholy invalid within doors. Centu- 
ries ago, when Spain was in the hight of her 
glory and prosperity, the Roman Catholic Church, 
through her obedient son, Philip the Second, pre- 
pared the muriatic acid by which the carbonate 
of lime has been abstracted from her hones. 
leaving behind only the gristly animal matter. 
Slowly and surely the chemical agenl proceeded 

in its work. Soon the proud form began to fee] 

the weakening influence. No more grand Ar- 
madas were fitted out to sail on voyaged of dis- 
covery and conquest No more brave cavaliers 
were abroad, conquering provinces for " His most 

Catholic Majesty of Spain.' 1 They were all called 
home and transformed into nurses and physi- 
cians, to stand around the bed of the invalid state. 
Being unable longer to go abroad, and make an 
honest livelihood (as nations count honesty) by 
gathering golden revenues from conquered prov- 
inces, she sold one after another of her beaut i fid 
possessions, to raise money for the ghostly fathers 
who administered muriatic acid, mid to support 



BARDNE8S OF BONE. <3 

physicians who knew nothing of the nature of 
her disease. Their remedies were all empirical, 
and the poor state grew gradually weaker under 
medicinal experiments. 

At times a spasmodic energy seemed to enter 
her bones, and she said, "I will arise and go out 
a*> at other times before;* 1 hut she found that her 
n ankle-bones had not received strength." and she 
went but a little way beyond her own threshold. 
Her neighbors, who were anxious that she should 
have at least a "name to live." kindly conveyed 
her to her home again, and placed her under care 
of doctors. Perhaps they signified their solici- 
tude by suggesting some root or herb, which ex- 
perience had taught them was good for con- 
tinuing breath in the nostrils <>r superannuated 
nati' 

A contrast with this national feebleness maybe 
by looking northward, where Britain has 
her island home. There may be seen a nation- 
ality grander and mightier to-day than ever 
b.-tbre. 

Three hundred years ago, when Philip the 

iid ruled Spain, and Elizabeth occupied the 

throne "t* England, the Spaniards were a mighty 

n. while the English were a "feeble folk." 

an Armada fitted out by Spain tilled 

all England with appro! 



76 THE BODY POLITIC. 

The weakness of England then was that of 
childhood. Her limbs had not become hardened 
with the bone and sinew of maturity. She had 
just abjured the Eoman Catholic iaith. and < a>t 
to the ground the corrosive chemical which 
would have eaten out the substance from her 
bones, and kept her in a state o£ worse than in- 
fantile weakness, to become the victim of a crafty 
hierarchy. 

From that day to this she has kept a steady 
and discerning eye upon her bodily condition. 
The moment she has detected any intluencc at 
work which might ultimately destroy her, she 
has had courage to cast it oil', however loudly the 
voice of false expediency might he uplifted in 
defense. When the incubus of slavery began to 
prey upon a remote part other body, she saw at 
once her serious case, and adopted vigorous meas- 
ures for self-preservation. By a prompt and 
bold operation of political surgery, she was re- 
lieved of the growing malady. 

As a great maritime power, she has considered 
it her duty to provide that the sea should not be 
the medium of till ■■limit fling this disease. The 
principles guiding her policy at home she has 
carried out upon the waves. When her flag 
heaves in view, the horrors of the middle pas- 
sage are succeeded by the delights of liberty. 



HARDNESS OF BONE. 77 

Though England has a multitude of national 
sins which need repentance, and which the man- 
tle of American charity can scarcely cover, yet 
she deserves credit for more Christianity in her 
politics than most of her contemporaries. She 
heeded the advice of such illustrious men as 
Wilberforce and Clarkson, and abolished slavery 
throughout her empire. 

This was not the work of her aristocracy, hut 
oi' her people — the stern and determined race 
thai centuries before had exacted liberty for 
themselves from the hands of unwilling kings; 
the same indomitable people that in old colonial 
day<. while struggling for existence on the bleak 
: he New World, had refused to yield the 
: Englishmen to the exactions of a king 
:cl the seas. The practical, hard-handed 
uinry «>f Kniriand set free the slaves within 
the limits of the British p]mpire. The aristocracy, 
with a lew honorable exceptions, had no sympathy 
with this movement. When the Southern rebel- 
lion broke out. this portion of the English popula- 
tion showed that its sympathies were with slavery 
and aristocracy. As. by virtue of birth and pre- 
nt, they stand nearest the throne, they threw 
British influence into the scale, which well-nigh 
preponderance to the Southern cause. 
When the masses of England gradually grew 



78 THE BODY POLITIC. 

into an understanding of the issue, they moved 
the resistless weight of public opinion against 
the defensive works of slavery, reared by the 
nobility, and the British nation stood once more 
in upright attitude, a defender of the right, an 
opponent of the wrong. 

When in a nation's career there is wanting a 
bold avowal of noble principle, and open mani- 
festation of determination to walk in the path 
of rectitude and virtue, the way before it is 
downward and easy of descent. 

" Facilis descensus Averno."' 

It is an admirable providence which arranges 
the affairs of this world in such a way that, sooner 

or later, a nation must Stumble and fall over its 
own crafty and unhallowed schemes. When a 
nation, through long habit of bending the knee, 

and bowing down in the presence of evil, grows 
weak-jointed and hunchbacked, we have reason 
to be thankful for the inevitable result. We 
see therein exercised the hand of Provide net- 
in bringing about as useful a result as when the 
steady shining of the summer's sun brings on 
the golden harvest. It is well that a nation, in 
the course of the commission of her deeds, is all 
the while making provision for their publication 
on her own person. If she moves continually in 



HAUPNKSS OF BONE. 79 

upright and noble attitude, every movement 
gives new gracefulness and strength, and pro- 
motes honorable and beautiful longevity. If 
with cowardly step she goes to the accomplish- 
ment of dishonorable deeds, every motion tends 
to mold the pliable body into more unsightly 
deformity. 

Geological surveys reveal the fact that certain 
sections ot' our country are wanting in the litho- 
logical element whence material is obtained for 
stiffening backbones. The fact that the District 
of Colombia is deficient in limestone may account 
for the spinal limberness which was once preva- 
lent among residents of that locality. Persons 
a ne thither possessing many noble traits 
of ci . promising to walk in manly up? 

tightness and integrity all their lives, and yet 
I to the unhappy influences of the 
. and made the dust the path of their tor- 
tuous ami prostrate locomotion. 

It has been supposed that the West, on account 
of it> vast deposits of limestone, would produce 
men ot" larger physical proportions than other 
parts ot' tin- earth. It may be that, after many 
years, when animal chemistry has had time, by 
slow process. to eliminate elements from th< 
and organize them into bony tissue, the West 
will present Specimens Of humanity which shall 



80 THE BODY POLITIC. 

rival the celebrated citizen of Gath. The advo- 
cates of this- theory of course require time for the 
working" out of Kmn results, as several genera- 
tions must always pass before climate, soil, and 
scenery can impress new peculiarities upon a 
people. 

It may be long before the West shall improsi 
any important physical peculiarities upon her 
population, but moral and intellectual influ oa eee 
will not be so long in manifestation. When men 
remove from the tainted moral atmosphere which 
hangs over crowded cities, and make themselves 
homes on the wide prairies of the West, they are 
brought in leM frequent contact with men. and 
stand in closer communion with <iod. In great 
cities, men are prone to lay aside their independ- 
ence and lose their moral ability to stand alone. 
[fl the performance of political functions, men 
are most disposed to congregate, and when one 
least looks for it he is liable to find himself with 
the multitude, obeying the behests of some noisy 
demagogue. 

Cases are by no means rare in which men al- 
most wholly reduced to the cartilaginous state, 
who were most plastic clay in the hands of the 
political potter, by a judicious change of climate 
have realized complete restoration to primitive 
manliness and integrity. 



HARDNESS OF BONE. 81 

It is ardently hoped that the West, so favora- 
ble to solitary reflection and independent action, 
may have a population free from the disease 
we deprecate. Men can not, it is true, divest 
themselves of disease at will, and are sometimes 
compelled to wear their maladies to the remotest 
lands to which they wander; hence chronic cases 
may be found everywhere, which yield but 
slowly to the remedial influence of new cir- 
cumstances. 

Western states get out of the reach of politi- 
cal wires, and break away from the restraints 
of party leading-strings, before self-constituted 
nurses are prepared for such manifestations of 
infantile energy. The infant Hercules strangles 
terpen te in his cradle, as a prophecy of what he 
shall Accomplish in the maturity of his strength, 
ad of -pending years in the erection of cob- 
houses, with which his nurses and guardians de- 
siiv to amuse him while they enjoy his patri- 
mony, hi' kicks playthings all aside and pro- 
ceeds to the erection of marble capitols. While 
they would hold his hand in juvenile walks, and 
teaeh him to submit implicitly to their direction, 
-lddenly forsakes them, and leaves them to 
hold the worthless remnants of their ambitious 
Lope*. 



82 THE BODY POLITIC. 



CHAPTER X. 

How Political Bone Becomes Compact. 

Within the human body the change of car- 
tilaginous substance into bone begins at oar* 
lain localities called points of ossification. Here 
the soft and yielding substance grows compart. 

and rudimentary cells become parte of the solid 
mass which forms the frame. The work of 
fication, beginning in the various parte of the 

body, goes on until growth in one direction meets 
progress in another, and at length the whole 

fabric is "fitly joined together." 

In our body politic may be Been the b<>ny Mib- 
stance in all degrees of progress— the softest gris- 
tle, the lithe and supple substance of youth, the 
brittle and unyielding bone of age. 

In New England may be seen such stiffness 
and uprightness of carriage as to indicate a well- 
formed and thoroughly ossified skeleton. Steady 
habits are so thoroughly formed, that there seems 
to be no disposition to depart from them. New 
England was so carefully led in youth, by the 
hands of her "Pilgrim Fathers," in paths of vir- 



BONE BECOMES COMPACT. b& 

tue. that now neither temptations nor trials avail 
to lead her astray. 

It would be an error to suppose that her body 
ifl kept erect by a skeleton as lifeless and unyield- 
ing as the granite of her hills. Her bone has 
not become a dead mineral mass, unfitted by its 
aged stiffness for the activities of energetic life. 
The vital fluid circulates freely throughout her 
system; the channels are not yet obstructed by 
the foreign substances which produce the feeble- 
Her limbs now seem endowed with 
more strength to labor and more vigor to ad- 
vance than ever before.' 

In the regions to the westward may be seen 
greater elasticity of limb. There is less rigidity 
of purpose to waik in beaten paths, and greater 
will;! i attempt new and untried modes of 

n. The American, placed a little outside the 
eastern restraint, claims the privi- 

of thinking and acting in accordance with 
•• his OWn sweet will.'' 

The western portion of the body politic differs 
from parts adjacent on either hand, in having 
neither the rigid bone of maturity, nor the carti- 
of the embryonic state. While endowed 
with rable vertebral stiffness, it still has 

• r to bend ; it has many well-adjusted joints 
which admit of easy and graceful motions. 



84 THE BODY POLITIC. 

The French element, infused by chivalrous pio- 
neers, who sailed the northern lakes and ex- 
plored the western streams, has oiled the joints, 
and disposed the whole apparatus to combine 
in making most graceful and complacent bow ■>. 
on occasions which call for such demonstrations 
of politeness. So complacent in her politeness 
and so childlike and confiding in her ways has 
the West appeared, that designing men have pre- 
sumed upon her as an easy victim of their 
wicked purposes. 

Aaron Burr supposed he might fascinate so 
young a creature, and laid his plans to allure her 
out upon romantic enterprises, doubting not that 
he might at last find a pretext for riveting upon 
her the bonds of despotic sovereignty. The 
event proved the futility of sueli calculations 
upon the inexperience of the West, and showed 
that, although she might possess all confidence 
in her real friends, yet she had eyes to see and 
resolution to thwart the base purposes of her 
secret enemies. 

On a subsequent occasion, calculations were 
erroneously made upon western pliability. Per- 
sons possessed of a peculiar kind of property, 
which they had found unproductive at home, 
desired to take their possessions to the West to 
see whether, as a forlorn hope, something might 






B0XE BECOMES COMPACT. b& 

not be realized. There was an ugly obstacle in 
the way — a troublesome barrier, which shut them 
out of certain coveted regions more effectually 
than Adrian's wall prevented the approaches of 
the Puts and Scots to their neighbors of South- 
ern Britain 

A design was formed of breaking down this 
troublesome partition. No doubt was enter- 
tained that if it could be caused to follow the ex- 
ample of the walls of Jericho, that Western pio- 
neers would have no nerve to interpose obstacles 
to the purposes of the slave propagandists. By 
Congressional vote and Executive approval, the 
wall was spirited away, so that it has now neither 
a local habitation nor a name save among "the 
things that were." The antiquarian of time to 
will search in vain along the line of its 
cUocribed locality to find a trace of its existence. 
He will not find one stone upon another to show 
where it stood. 

Many gravely and sincerely regretted the 
destruction of the Missouri Compromise line, 
and it really seemed a national misfortune, 
there semis little in its removal to regret, 
e is a hollow thing prolonged by frowning 
walls. After the encroaching sin should be 
finally and forever swept away, and, the conflict 
uv«-r. brethren should dwell together in unity, 



86 THE BODY POLITIC. 

the old Avail would stand as an unpleasant me- 
morial of things that it were better to forget: 

Those who had seen the advancing tide of 
slavery roll on. with apparently resistless prog- 
ress, until it reached the Line of Compron 
by which it was beaten hack like surf from the 
rocky coast, feared that, when it should be re- 
moved, all their fair heritage would he laid waste. 
They did not reflect that a wall of men might he 
more effective than a line oflegislative enactment. 
Jn some emergencies men are strangely forgetful 
Of what they well know in cooler moments. They 

had read the story <>f Leonidaa and his three 

hundred Spartans, and how they stood like a 

wall of iron against the Persian invaders; hut 

when the lesson would have well applied and 

would have opened a better prospect for the 

future, it strangely slipped from memory. It is 
well that great facts and principles remain the 
.same, despite human ignorance or inattention. 
Man is the material with which God erects har- 
riers more impassable than mountain chains. 
He who says, "Thus far shalt thou come, and 
no further," has at His command the most effi- 
cient means by which the proud waves are 
stayed. 

When the Wall of Compromise was swept 
away, a living barrier of men was found to suh 






BONE BECOME* COMPACT. -7 

serve a better purpose. The hopes of one party 
ami the fears of the other were alike d 
pointed. 

The propagan-: riavery had placed great 

reliance upon the pliability of the young com- 
munities of the Wi b( They had not thought 
them capable of so firm resistance. Xot until 
thpy ran against a r - eh barrier, were they 
aware that communities so young could havu 
Ptrength and firmness to resist their encroach- 
ments. 

Ossiiicatirrn had been going steadily onward, 
adding rirmnes* and vigor to more and more of 
the body politic. The western frontier of civil- 
ization M said to advance at the rate of fifteen 
miles a year. Ossification has not pr 
with a regularity which admits of such accurate 
computation, yet it has pressed hard alter the 

ops of advancing civilization. The prog 
of this influence bears more resemblance to the 
early, than the recent settlement of America. 
Now the army of chilization extends it long 
front from north to south, and marches steadily 
and fear r thin and weak 

the line. In an earlier day fbrtfl were 
built fur in advance of civilization, and 

for p 
- 



88 THE BODY POLITIC. 

The process in the body politic which is here 
described advances like the retarded civilization 
of early days. Many influences work against it. 
Some there are who would prefer to have our 
great nation lie helpless on her continental bed, 
a pitiable invalid, rather than sec her stand, with 
athletic limbs, in attitude of action. They are 
violent in their opposition to the advancement of 
the elements of vigor. Being voluntary cham- 
pions of imbecility and weakness, they are vio- 
lent in their exertions in behalf of their feeble 
cause. Ossification in the body politic can only 
be commenced and carried on by a combination 
of upright and virtuous influences. Thus alone 
are paralyzed the hands uplifted against the 
advancing good. 

The recent war has given great impetus to the 
maturing and solidifying process in the Ameri- 
can Eepublic. The "shock of battle' 1 has elec- 
trified portions of the body politic with new and 
nobler life. An uprightness has been given to 
communities which they could never have at- 
tained under old auspices. 

The body politic is newly energized, and r 
from the supine position in which she so long 
has lain. Her feet and ankle-bones have re- 
ceived strength. She is now capable of making 
greater advancement by her independent excr- 



BONE BECOMES COMPACT. 89 

tions. than she could have made when carried as 
an invalid on the shoulders of public servants, 
who endeavored to keep her in helpless condi- 
tion, that they night bear her backward or for- 
ward, to one side or the other, as coincided with 
their selfish purposes. 
8 



90 THE BODY POLITIC. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Phosphorus in the Body — Pains and Pleas- 
ures of Fire-eating. 

Phosphorus is an element in human bones. 

It was discovered by the Alchemists, who called 
it "Sod of Satan/' from its fiery proclivities. 
This substance, in the laboratory and shop, is 

kept in water, because of its tendency, when ex- 
posed to air, to burst forth into flame on the 
slightest touch. 

Of this substance, men in general have about 
two pounds apiece in their bodies. Bo earefully 
is it packed away in the r< >f the frame, 

and so well is it held in check by more sluggish 
substances in its neighborhood, that a tire sel- 
dom originates from this source. Life insurance 
companies, always distinguished for their kind 
scrutiny into the lurking dangers which cut short 
human existence, never add the fraction of a 
cent to their premium because the clay tenement 
insured is used as the store-house of so much in- 
flammable matter. 

A few years since, a portion of our body poli- 
tic, though deficient in lime, was overcharged 



THOSPHORIS AND FIRE-EATING. l.U 

with phosphorus. Some of our fellow-citizens 
attained distinction as "jirt-catcrs." They are 
supposed to have been diligent students of hu- 
man nature, and conscientious in supplying all 
the just demands of the bodily constitution. Be- 
ing convinced that the phosphorescent ingredi- 
ent in bones must need replenishing, they are 
supposed to have indulged in a frequent diet of 

coals. 

He who discovers a new article of food is said 
to be a benefactor of his race, inasmuch as he 
not only adds to the means of human sustenance, 
but opens a new avenue of enjoyment. Among 
the valuable results of the discovery of America 
are the important additions made thereby to 
man s bill of fare, and the enlargement it has 
made to his frugal board. It is a question how 
our unhappy ancestors could have conducted 
their feasts without the dishes which America 
ha- contributed to man in our more recent and 
highly favored days. Did not many a guest 
■Nfttisfied with the sameness of beef, pork, and 
-on. which loaded the tables of our forefath- 
haye a presentiment of the variety which 

tlie discovery of America w«»uld introduce into 
the world's bill of fare? IVrhaps among the 
drcam> which haunted our ancestors in the 
nights succeeding their ftfflhlj banquets, there 



92 THE BODY POLITIC. 

may have appeared some of the protean shapes 
which Indian corn has assumed upon modern 
tables. 

What gratitude should inspire the hearts of 
all toward the man whose discernment saw in so 
unpromising a weed as the wild potato a staple 
article of food ! He was endowed with genius 
w T ho first conceived that the slim subterranean 
stems of this plant, by cultivation, would Acquire 
such tuberous enlargement as to become availa- 
ble for food. 

Not only in the contribution of actual articles 
of food has America established a claim to the 
gratitude of mankind, but also by the bestowal of 
substances like tobacco, which subserve the pur- 
poses of luxury alone. Not only does the Dutch- 
man who has actually emigrated to the New 
World owe a debt of gratitude to America, but 
the home-keeping subject, who has never DMOed 
beyond the contincs of the Fatherland, is under 
a heavy weight of obligation to the land which 
lies toward the setting sun. As he enjoys the 
delightsome odor which rises from the burn- 
ing of his favorite leaf, and beholds the graceful 
garlands of smoke which wreathe the atmos- 
phere of his room, his heart glows with gratitude 
toward Christopher Columbus for discovering 
America, and to that continent itself for the 






PHOSPHORUS AND FIRE-EATING. 93 

bestowal of so good a gift. The portion of his 
heart not preoccupied with these emotions is 
filled with commiseration for those unhappy 
people whose lives fell in the unfavored centuries 
when men had to breathe a vapid and inodorous 
atmosphere, unblessed by the fragrant incense 
of the pipe. 

America has lately added another substance to 
the list of edibles. Some of her sons have sacri- 
ficed themselves to test the virtue of coals as arti- 
cles of food. The experiment had the merit of 
self-sacrifice, as all analogy and presumption 
seemed to show that it would prove fatal. Up 
to the date of the modern achievements, history 
gives but a single instance of an attempt to eat 
burning coals — the pitiable case of a Eoman lady 
beut on suicide. From some cause, the influence 
of dyspepsia in weakening the digestory organ- 
ism. BO that hot food could not be taken with 
impunity, or from over-eating, the event justi- 
fied her expectation, and the unfortunate lady 
Was gathered prematurely to her fathers. 

For centuries after this event, the world sup- 
i that the question concerning the nutritious 
quality of coals was decided in the negative, 
and experiments ceased to be made. The blis- 
tering effect of fire was m manifest on the exte- 
rior of the body, that men. ever hasty to reason 



94: THE BODY POLITIC. 

from analogy, supposed that coals, if admitted 
into the stomach, would injure the lining mem- 
brane, and produce serious soreness of the ali- 
mentary canal. 

It remained for certain Americans who won 
for themselves distinction as "fire-eaters" to 
demonstrate the fallacy of such reasoning, and 
show the truth of the great principle first avowed 
by an illustrious countryman. Mr. Samuel Patch, 
that u some things can he done as well asoth- 

They did not rashly address themselves to the 
perilous experiment, as did the suicidal Roman 
lady, hut with due deliberation they proceeded 
to the pitch of daring to which they finally 
arrived. 

They were careful observers of nature, and 
conducted their experiments according to her 
teachings. They ohserved that human habitude 
to certain foods is arrived at by degrees. They 
perceived that, by arduous effort and careful cul- 
tivation, a taste could be created for things the 
most repulsive. 

They were aware that, by gradual beginnings. 
the body may be trained to do extraordinary 
feats. When the ancient Kilo formed the bold 
and ambitious resolution to shoulder and carry 
a bull, for the amusement and instruction of his 
countrymen, he first applied himself to the ani- 



PIIOSPHORIS AND FIRE-EATING. H 

mal when a calf, which he carried every day. 
Thus hifl strength kept pace with the growth of 
the animal, and at last he accomplished the won- 
derful feat, in the midst of admiring thousands. 

There was another ohservation of great value 
to these Incipient tire-eaters. They saw that 
man, in commencing his career of eating and di- 
gesting, does not proceed at once to solid food, 
but takes nourishment at first in liquid form, 
until the stomach acquires strength, and the 
necessary masticatory apparatus has been de- 
veloped. 

Thereupon they wisely resolved to make their 
first experiments upon fire in liquid form, and 
proceed thence to the more perilous enterprise of 
devouring substantial food in the form of coals. 
They were at no loss to find it in convenient form. 
They found fire in solution in a number of attract- 
ive forms, to which the highly descriptive name 
of '-fire-water" has been applied. 

Gentlemen ambitious of distinction as fire- 
eaters were not unfamiliar with the enlivening 
and exalting effects of this magical fluid. They 
had used it to obviate the freezing influences of 

winters at Washington, and found it no less po- 
tent in counteracting the fierceness of Southern 
heat. Had they been familiar with the language 
i they would have praised their favorite 



96 THE BODY POLITIC. 

beverage in the words which the Roman orator 
applied to literature: "It charms youth, delights 
old age, adorns prosperity, affords solace in ad- 
versity, drives away the dullness of home, is no 
hinderance abroad, spends the night with us, 
journeys in our company, and is the delight- 
ful companion of our retirement in the coun- 
try." 

As Southern gentlemen in Congress sometimes 
had their infallibility called in question, and fre- 
quently heard doubts expressed of the righteous- 
ness of their favorite institution, their only 
solace was found in the beverage which brtfted 
their nerves, and screwed their courage to the 
sticking point, preparatory to the performance 
of deeds of valor, and the infliction of bodily 
chastisement upon persons daring to question 
the superiority of the Southern people. 

So important an auxiliary was whisky in such 
emergencies, that it was considered one of the 
indispensable perquisites of a Southern Congress- 
man. In the early part of the Congressional 
career of John C. Breckinridge, his establish- 
ment in Washington consisted of two rooms, the 
principal one of which had for its only furniture 
a half dozen split-bottom chairs, and a keg of 
whisky conveniently located, with a spigot in 
the end, and a tin-cup hanging near. To this 



riiospnoitrs and fikk-eating. i>7 

household god not only members of the family, 
hut guests and strangers, were expected to pay 
devotions. 

Persons who have eondueted their explora- 
tions into the anatomy and physiology of intem- 
pe ranee so far as to examine the stomaeh of a 
dead inebriate, and have seen the cfteet which 
alcohol has produced on the coating of the 
stomach, can form some idea of the manner in 
which the use of whisky paved the way for fire- 
eating. The whole inner man became so callous 
that burning coals could be swallowed without a 
pang The brain became so diseased by a long 
course of dissipation, that the mind could not act 
with coolness and vigor, and hence these mounte- 
banks, bent on astounding mankind, performed 
the most hazardous exploits without any concep- 
tion of the danger. 

•■ What reward did they expect?" asks the prac- 
tical man. This is a question which these disin- 
taaeted scions of statesmanship never consid- 
ered, since in all their deeds they regarded the 
good of the country and forgot their own inter- 
ests. Statesmanship was a profession with them. 
Being supported by their slaves, they devoted 
themselves wholly to polities, and. of course, 
had noire knowledge than other people of what 
would be for the country's gOOcL Being the pro- 



98 THE BODY POLITIC. 

prietors of this knowledge, so essential to suc- 
cessful statesmanship, they were, of course, inca- 
pable of employing it for any other object than 
the great end of government, "the greatest good 
to the greatest number." 

Southern statesmen discovered the relation 
which subsisted between fire-eating and patriot- 
ism, as clearly as the idol -priests, exposed by 
Daniel, discerned the natural connection between 
worship and their own subsistence on the sump- 
tuous banquets spread to regale their gods. 

They successfully played their parte so long as 
Northern people could be frightened, and South- 
ern masses held in admiration. To convince 
beholders that the performance was a reality 
and no deception, like true jugglers, they dis- 
played the burning coals before entering upon 
the perilous exploit When terror and wonder 
had risen to greatest intensity, the fiery morsel 
was put into the mouth. The physical effects 
were awful to behold. The cheeks were dilated 
to their utmost capacity ; the eyes flowed as it' the 
whole inner man were set on tire. Some of the 
beholders were acted upon as children hearing 
the nursery stories of ,k Raw-head and Bloody- 
bones." Their imaginations strove in vain to 
conceive how terrible it would be to fall into the 
hands of such monsters. The citizens of Bun- 



PH08PHOKU8 AND NRK-EATING. 99 

combe and surrounding country wore filled with 
ad mi rati (Mi of their chivalrous representatives, 
ami gratefully voted them continuance in office 
so long as it might please them to accept. 

The fire-eaters have passed away. Their race 
has become extinct. Their exploits live only in 
history. Looking hack upon their deeds, we 
Wonder that we ever thought serious harm could 
happen us from their melodramatic teats. Disas- 
trous results have come upon them and their fol- 
lowers. The flames kindled by their fiery exha- 
lations have ravaged the entire South, and left 
her fair fields a waste of ruin. 

The mind will sometimes amuse itself by at- 
tempting to conceive the state of things, had fire- 
eaters succeeded in demonstrating the excellence 
<^t' coals as an article of food. They would have 
been held in honor as benefactors of the race. 

The question, "What shall we eat?'* asked and 

unanswered bo many times in every age, which 
has driven countless multitudes, in every gener- 
ation, to lives <>f unmitigated toil, would have 
found satisfactory reply. Butchers would have 
been supplanted by colliers, and firemen would 
occupy the place of cooks. The fire-alarm would 

fall on the ear with :i- grateful BOUnd AS dinner- 

bells. Hungry people would gather round a 
ition, and feast opon firebrands with un- 



100 THE BODY POLITIC. 

alloyed delight. Shovel and tongs would occupy 
the place in daily use now held by knife and 
fork. The coal-fields of Pennsylvania would 
be "The garden-spot of America." Newcastle 
would furnish a vast cellar stored with food to 
satisfy the hungry population of Great Britain. 
In view of the rapid increase of the human 
race, political economists have expressed concern 
for the dense population of future times, fearing 
lest the fruitful earth may not yield food for the 
countless millions that shall swarm the continents 
Had the feasibility of fire-eating been fully shown, 
all such concern would forever have been set 
at rest. Surely the morrow might be left to 
"take thought for itself/ 1 si nee there are five 
thousand billions of tons of coal in the earth, 
besides eight hundred thousand million* of tons 

of carbon floating in the atmosph e re, in an invis- 
ible state, waiting to go down through the ave- 
nues of vegetation to augment the exhaust less 
treasure. 

Had all these stores of carbon in the earth and 
air been found available for food, specters of 
Famine and Starvation would be forever ban- 
ished from the abodes of men. Unfortunately, 
however, fire-eating is no longer considered a 
practicable thing, and is numbered among the 
exploded bubbles of former years. 



NATIONAL NERVES AND THEIR USES. 101 



CHATTER XII. 

National Xerves — Their Former and their 
Latter U&B& 

The human body without means of communi- 
cation between the different parts would be un- 
wieldy and useless matter. There could be no 
unity of action. The most deadly harm might 
prey upon a limb, and no information could 
reach the seat of intelligence, and no sympathy 
;nce come from other members. 

Our bodies are not thus left to become a prey 
to destruction. A delicate system of nerv< 

in the body, threading the frame every- 
where with its curious channels of communica- 
tion. Upward and downward, backward and 
forward, right and left, lie these secret avenues 
nsation and volition, ready to transmit to 
and from the mind, with telegraphic swift] 
all matters of moment to the bodily health and 
:y. 

If. by any mi>f«»rtune. the nerves of motion 
and E D in a limb are paralyzed, it hangfl 

languid and a hinderance rather than a 

help. The mind which 1 it. and 



102 THE BODY POLITIC. 

the fellow members which were wont to run 
swiftly to its help, grow indifferent to its welfare. 
Having resigned it sorrowfully to premature 
death, they take no more trouble nor concern 
for its safety. 

When the nervous system is all in working 
order, it forms a most complete and efficient 
source of safety. When, by the blander of an 
awkward arm, a finger is thrust into danger, 
news of the harm is quickly conveyed to the 
brain. "I burn," is telegraphed by the in- 
jured member to head-quarters. The fire- 
alarm sounds in an instant throughout the 
body. Motoiy nerves are used to acknowledge 
the receipt of the intelligence, and at the same 
time to give directions concerning the means of 

safety. The muscles arc acted upon, and by 
their strong and efficient aid the injured part is 
lifted from the midst of harm, and placed be- 
yond the reach of danger. If desirable, the 
whole body is put in motion, and placed as far as 
possible from harm. 

A nervous system is essential to the health and 
safety of the body politic, for without it our 
country would be little better than contiguous 
masses of plains and mountains. 

Our postal system forms an important part of 
the nervous net-work of the body politic. Its 



NATIONAL NERVES AND THEIR USES. 103 

motorv and Sensitive threads are distributed 
throughout the land. From the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, from the Northern lakes to the South- 
ern Gulf, there is no spot to which its messages 
may not penetrate. There is no citizen so ob- 
seure or so distant that he may not be readied 
by its far-extending influences. 

This apparatus was originally constructed that 
facilities might be afforded the inhabitants of 
the country for communicating with one an- 
other. It occurred to those who constructed our 
Government, that man is a social being, and is 
prone to remember his absent friends. It more- 
over seemed extremely desirable that the sepa- 
ration of a few miles should not make enemies 
of those who would otherwise bo friends. Abil- 
ity to drop an epistle to a distant friend would 
do much to render the pioneer on the Western 
frontier contented in his wilderness abode. It 
would do much to bind the lover and the trades- 
man by ties of affection to their country, to know 
that easy and cheap facilities were afforded by its 
ample provision for sending messages of affection 
and business to sweethearts and to customers. 

The National Government earl}- took into her 
own hand the work for which Bhe al<»nc was ad- 
equate. She then had a single eye toward tin 4 
happiness of the people. Unsophisticated as she 



104 THE BODY POLITIC. 

was, she did not dream that the selection of 
servants to accomplish her beneficent purposes 
would open to them the floodgates of fortune. 
Unreasonable as it may now appear, her design 
was not to confer honor or emolument upon the 
office-holder, but to employ the best means for 
accomplishing her kind intentions toward the 
people. 

Soon the office of postmaster became the ob- 
ject of loud clamor and laborious effort: 

"For never office yet so mean could prove, 
But there was eke a mind which did that office love." 

Multitudes were found willing to forego a good 
conscience and an honest employment to enjoy 
the few scanty loaves and diminutive fishes 
doled to hungry beggars at the door of the Post- 
office Department. The paltry pence picked up 
in this way were at par value with persons whose 
tastes and habits unfitted them for the laborious 
duties of an independent employment, and the 
honor was an emolument highly prized by per- 
sons whose private resources in this particular 
were limited. 

On the eve of a Presidential election there are 
thousands who hope that they are the favored 
ones for whom fortune will next turn up a prize. 
They grow extremely solicitous for the welfare of 



NATIONAL NKRVES AND THEIR USES, 105 

their country. There id nowhere in all the world 
80 redoubtable a knight as the Quixotic hero 
to whom these Sancho Panzas have attached 
their fortunes, in hopes that the long-looked-for 
l, island" may be obtained at last. English lexi- 
cography is taxed to the utmost to furnish words 
expressive of the superlative purity of the patri- 
otism, and the transparent integrity of the can- 
didate whose claims they advocate. If their 
candidate is elected, they estimate every one of 
these ponderous epithets as -'worth its weight in 
gold." 

The Presidential contest is scarcely over, and 
the smoke of battle has not cleared away, before 
the ardent patriots, whose exertions have won 
the day, give over their efforts to save the 
Union, and hasten to secure the reward of their 
disinterested services. The head-quarters of the 
successful faction now suffer siege. The incom- 
ing administration may well pray to be "saved 
from its friends." The camp, where erewhile 
the utmost harmony of action, is now up- 
roarious with contention concerning the division 
of the spoils. Every man's hand is against his 
neighbor. Only when the office-seeker's own 
ambition is fully gratified, is he ready to assist 
hi- eoinrades in arms. 

Many are disappointed, while some go away 



10G THE BODY POLITIC. 

with ambition, for the present, satisfied. If they 
preserve their party allegiance, and set a strict 
watch over all their words, they may preside over 
post-offices for at least four years succeeding. 
As the administration conferring the favor has 
the battery of patronage, which it may bring to 
bear in the next contest, there is a pleasing prob- 
ability that they may get a renewed lease of life. 
Their tenacity of lite is strong. ESveo in the 
" hour and article of death," they do not yield 
up the ghost without a fierce struggle with the 
grim monster. They are willing to purchase a 
respite or release on any terms. 

A certain queen, in the closing scene of her 
career, in view of unrepented sins, expressed her 
willingness to give her kingdom fora single hour 
to live. If office-holders wished a further term 

of life, that they might have space for repentance, 
and time in which to manifest its sincerity by 
honest practices, there would be great propriety 
in their tenacity of life. 

The original design of the post-office was to 
afford citizens of the country facilities for com- 
munication. This end has assumed a secondary 
place. The primary object now seems to be to 
render every portion of the body aware of Pres- 
idential will, and submissive to executive man 
dates. The President has certain sentiments, the 



NATIONAL NKUVKS AND THEIR USES. 107 

dissemination of which he considers of vital im- 
portance to his own personal good, and the ad- 
vantage of the party for whose benefit he rules. 

He finds the post-office an efficient means of dis- 
seminating these sentiments to the remotest part 
of the republic Not that the President avails 
himself of the post-office, as a plain citizen would 

do, by writing his convictions in a letter to a cor- 
respondent in .Maine or California, and sending 
it by mail to its remote destination. In no such 
commonplace manner as this does the President 
employ the post-office. The line of duty is per- 
emptorily laid down to postmasters, in which 
they must walk with undeviating directness. 
The details of partisan tactics are carefully 
taught them, and they must obey all orders 
with military exactr 

Wbe to the unfortunate official who dares to 
dilute pure Presidential instructions with unrea- 
sonable BCrupleS of his own! He has wandered 
beyond the tender mercies of executive clemency. 
The sword breaks the slender hair upon which 
it has hung; the ill-starred official head drops 
into the basket. 



108 THE BODY POLITIC. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
Our Main Artery and its Important Functions. 

An observer, looking down from some aerial 
hight upon North America, would have his atten- 
tion attracted by what would seem to be a woof 
of silvery threads permeating the continent be- 
neath. At first the system and symmetry would 
not appear, and the threads would seem dis- 
tributed and combined at random. A more care 
ful survey, however, would make it apparent 
that the smaller lines are interwoven with one 
of larger dimensions threading the great central 
valley. 

This is not a piece of silver lace-work thrown 
over the continent for purposes of ornament 
alone. It forms our great fluviatile circulation. 
The eye of the observer, tracing the great cen- 
tral stream northward, at length reaches a lo- 
cality bearing resemblance to Eden, as described 
in Scripture. As many streams as those w r hich 
flowed from Paradise there gather their crystal 
waters, and hasten on their several ways — one 
through a chain of lakes to the Atlantic; another 
through Western plains to the Pacific; a third to 



A PRINCIPAL ARTERY. 109 

Hudson's Bay] and the last and greatest, flowing 

southward, conveys its waters to the Gulf of 
Mexico. 

The region whore these rivers take their rise 
is the "heart ot^ the continent." whence flow the 
great arteries which animate and beautify the 
Western world. The Mississippi, distributing 
verdure and beauty along its banks, and con- 
tributing to the prosperity of the populous states 
through which it flows, is the main artery of the 
great fluviatile circulation. 

There is analogy between the arterial system 
of the body and the rivers which build up and 
irrigate a fertile country. Eivers acted an im- 
portant part in preparing the globe for its pres- 
ent uses. They gathered and assorted materials, 
and distributed them to form the picturesque 
and fertile surface of the earth. 

Some countries Were made by the rivers which 
run through them. Egypt has been called the 
"gifl of the Nile." Bui for the early and assid- 
uous efforts of this mighty river, the site of 
Egypt would now be occupied by sea. and but 
for it^ later labors of irrigation, the country 

would be but a sandy desert 

As the blood, animated by contact with the 

outer world in the lungs, and urged to hot haste 

by a hri«-f visit to the heart, goee forth to the 



110 THE BODY POLITIC. 

remotest parts of the body, bearing new particles 
of vigorous life, which are deposited where there 
may be great need, or extraordinary labor in 
process of performance, so rivers not only dis- 
tribute new soil upon spots where fertility had 
been destroyed by many harvests, but, commer- 
cially, they remove the surplus productions of 
the fertile shores, and bring back in return pre- 
cious cargoes from other climes. 

Rivers arc indispensable to great and prosper- 
ous populations. No favorable situation on the 
sea-shore can compensate for the want of direct 
and continuous communication with the interior. 

The Mississippi was regarded as so important 
a possession, that Spain. France, and England 
all set up their several claims to the great river 
and the valley through which it flows. The 
Spaniards called it. M Rio Grande," and the French 
" St. Louis," but neither of these names wm bo 
appropriate as the Indian title by which it is 
now known. Tim powers of Europe that laid 
claim to the elephantine prize were at a loss to 
know where or how it should be kept. Had 
it been reckoned among their movable effects, 
the narrow homesteads of England. France, and 
Spain would not have sufficed for its safe-keeping, 
unless it could have been coiled after the man- 
ner of a serpent. In such a ctisc these countries 



A PRINCIPAL ARTKRV. HI 

would have the river as their solo possession, to 
the exclusion of their old and boasted landed 
property. Even Spain, it' she survived the del- 
age, looking over her watery domain, might 
claim England's self-arrogated title, u Mistress of 
the Bea." 

Happily for the permanence of those old Eu- 
ropean countries, and the prosperity of the 
American Continent, rivers, although constantly 
in motion, are not reckoned among movable 
efleets. Consequently, when European nations 
moved back to their old dominions, or collected 
their household floods into more limited settle- 
ments upon this continent, they bade a final 
farewell t<> the Father of Waters, and he became 
once more, n- lie had been in the beginning, an 
exclusively American river. The new proprie- 

Bed of ample territory for the sports 

and labors of the great river and all its attendant 
streams. 

This great American artery, originating in 
the heart of the continent, as it Hows through 
Northern bills and plains comes in contact with 
a thoroughly purified and oxygenized atmos- 
phere. It conveys along it- widening and deep- 
ening channel abundant means whereby the 
country dev< :<-?iL r th. On its waters float 

tie' productions of the Northern plain-. These 



112 THE BODY POLITIC. 

find a lodgment in Southern markets, or go to 
supply distant quarters of the globe. 

Blood is a mysterious thing. After long 
chemical and physiological research, men are 
unable to explain all the influences by which 
health and disease lurk within the crimson tide. 
Powers work silently and invisibly within its 
hidden streams, nor do they divulge the ■ 
of their presence until disease breaks forth with 
boldness and asserts its sway, or a better spirit, 
Jlygcia, the impersonation of health, with pow- 
ers fully developed, leaps up to occupy the vacant 
throne, whence her athletic arm hurls headlong 
her disgusting rival. 

The celebrated plague of Egypt has not been 
inflicted upon American rivers. Our worse than 
Egyptian obstinacy, in refusing to let our bonds- 
men go, did not qilite provoke the Almighty to 
turn the waters of our rivers into veritable 
blood. The sword had opened fountains of blood 
in patriotic hearts, which had begun to dye t he- 
waters of our rivers, when the Emancipation 
Proclamation, setting the bondsmen free, gave ■ 
solution of our national troubles, before we had 
reached the full measure of the ancient cm - 

As the heart transmits blood along the ar- 
teries to some languid and unhealthy limb, until 
by degrees it is restored to soundness, so an ele- 



A PRINCIPAL ARTERY. 113 

ment of health is mingled with the waters of the 
Mississippi, and goes onward in its ceaseless flow. 

The intellectual vigor, the enterprise, the free- 
dom of the North are flowing southward with 
the WA¥6S of the Mississippi. They are destined 
k) Overflow the valley, from the Northern lakes 

to the Southern (uilf No Southern levees shall 
prevent, no state boundaries shall prove an ef- 
fectual harrier. The very force of gravity, by 
which the waters seek the level of the sea, bears 
this influence toward its destination. 

The infatuated people attempting to dam the 
Xile with bulrushes, in the eloquent hypothesis 
of a celebrated orator, find a parallel in persons 
who put forth their frantic efforts to obstruct the 
progressive principles borne onward with the 
tide of the southward-flowing river. 

Xerxes, one of the largest and most foolish 
slaveholders of antiquity, had, like most of his 
craft, great faith in shackles. Since his expe- 
rience had proven that they were sovereign rem- 
edies for all human obduracies and evils, his 
profound analogical reasonings led him to the 
Conclusion that they would likewise be effectual 
with inanimate nature. 

When the Hellespont dared to despise liis royal 
authority, and break with its billowy arm his 

bridge of boat-. Kerxea commanded his black- 

10 



114 THE BODY POLITIC. 

smith to prepare shackles with which to bind 
the turbulent and uproarious subject. The black- 
smith must have been at a loss into what form to 
shape his iron. He had often made manacles for 
limbs of ordinary human dimensions; but when 
an "arm of the sea" so sturdy as the Helles- 
pont was to be fitted with chains, all his pre- 
vious measurements and models were at fault. 
The king's command was urgent, however, and 
shackles were forged whose exact dimensions 
have not come down to present times. 

The redoubtable king caused the chains to be 
brought forth with a pomp and publicity which 
added greatly to the weight of the punishment 
It was proper that a public example should be 
made, lest other and even smaller straits should 
grow refractory, and dare to set at naught the 
royal authority. With some weighty words of 
royal reproof, the shackles were east into the re- 
bellious strait. The metallic morsel was received 
into the sea's remorseless mouth, but the waves 
ceased not to toss as wildly and roar as loudly as 
before. 

King Xerxes gave evidence, on this occasion, 
that even a long course of tyrannical rule does 
not dry up all fountains of feeling in the human 
breast. As he sat on his marble throne, he was 
deeply affected to see his royal authority so 



A PRINCIPAL ARTEUV. 115 

boldly sot at naught by an insignificant sea, in 
the presence of more than a million men, and ho 
shed tears of heart -felt grief. A courtier, with 
many Balaams and expressions of deferential 
awe, inquired the cause of the royal tears. The 
king would have felt humiliated to unveil the 
feelings of an ordinary mortal to a courtier, 
hence he cloaked them by saving that he wept 
to think that in one hundred years all that vast 
multitude would be numbered among the dead. 
This, certainly, was a thought sufficiently melan- 
choly for team, especially since the poor king 
reflected that his own royal head must lie low 

!.• rest The conclusion can not easily 

ited, however, in view of the ncariic-- in 

of the irrepressible rebellion of 
tie* Sellespont, thai the king vrept rather from 
mortification that in tin- royal presence a body 

of water Should exhibit such decided and b<»N- 

terous preference for liberty. 
The L r n-ai lesson taught by the case of lei 

is the folly of even a despot's trying to war 

afore, and resist the solemn progress of 

human destiny. Shackles, whether attached t«» 
bodies of water, arm- of the sea, or limbs of men. 

can have but a temporary pOWCr, and ]»«i 

— and inherent tendency to break in 

IS. Any attempt to curtail the ancient lib- 



11G THE BODY POLITIC. 

erties of nature, or of man, must prove abortive, 
and speedy failure must crown all ambitious 
efforts in this direction. 

When a great and free-born river, like the Mis- 
sissippi, persists in flowing toward a particular 
point of the compass, even though it comes laden 
with principles the most hostile to peculiar local 
institutions, the wisest course for all concerned 
is to allow it a steady and unresisted How. All 
attempts to resist it are the bight of folly. An 
army of obscure fellow-craftsmen and petty emu- 
lators of Xerxes could not stay the river in its 
advances. It must flow onward, bearing in its 
bosom a great transforming and rejuvenating 
power. 

It w T as a custom in the South, in days anterior 
to the civil war, to consider newspapers contain- 
ing sentiments opposed to slavery as incendiary 
documents and commit them to the flames. Con- 
sistency would have voted, for similar reasons 
the Mississippi an " incendiary " stream. 

Chemists have been searching, with all the 
zeal of the old alchemists, to discover the secret 
influence by which the miracle of setting fire 
to water may be wrought. Philosophers have 
predicted that science will at no distant day 
render the economy of power so great, that 
one-half of a gallon of water maybe used to con- 



A PRINCIPAL ARTERY. 117 

vert the other half into steam. Such a result 
may crown the labors of a wiser and more skill- 
ful aire than ours; meanwhile nervous people of 
low latitudes may be relieved of fear that a 
Northern river will kindle a conflagration among 
their ootton-fields. 

A long course of uniformly consistent action 
leaves no douht as to the political proclivities of 
the .Mississippi. However politicians may " box 
the compass" in their attempts to go with the 
tide of popular favor, the great river changes 
not its course, but flows on, true as ever to the 
great principles of Liberty and Humanity. 

The Mississippi pours into the sea one hundred 
and one cubic miles of water every year. Min- 
gled with this vast flowing sea are nearly thirty 
hillions of feet of -<>lid matter from the north, 
which is partly distributed along it> shores, but 
principally deposited to augment the great delta 
which continually encroaches upon the sea at its 
mouth. With unceasing labor it is extending the 
area of the continent, having already, by its own 
constant and stupendous exertions, built up an 
extent of country thirteen thousand square miles 
in area, and one thousand feet in depth. 

This river has ever been the most efficient and 
active promoter of free-soil policy. While poli- 
ticians talked in loud and lengthened strains 



118 THE BODY POLITIC. 

concerning their various schemes of public pol- 
icy, the grand and silent river was occupied in 
action. It labored so mightily, in combination 
with the brave and earnest men who dwelt on 
its Northern banks, that new policies. new laws, 
and new religions have been established along 
its lower shores. The great laws of moral and 
physical gravitation, acting together, have car- 
ried freedom to the utmost reach of the M 
sippi's waves. 

In view of the physical structure of our coun- 
try, a division of the Union by a line running 
east and west, which would sever the great 
artery of our life and commerce, would be a fatal 
operation. Political Life could not survive the 
terrible dissection. Both sections would he smit- 
ten with the stroke of death. The half wherein 
the heart is situated might make a few spas- 
modic struggles to retain the breath of life, but 
unless reunion could be speedily secured, it 
would soon subside into the embrace of death. 

It is plainly written as a law of nature, that 
one nation must possess the Mississippi from its 
source to place of disemboguement, Jefferson 
perceived the force of this physical and political 
principle, and in becoming the purchaser of Lou- 
isiana he conferred upon the West a favor almost 



A riUNVH'Al. AUTKRY. 110 

signal as when he penned the Declaration of 
Independence. 

\\ hen the wise king in olden time decreed that 

the Child, for which two women desired to per- 
form maternal offices, should be divided between 

the contending parties, the true mother would 

not consent to the dissection, and finally had the 
happiness to bear away her undivided offspring. 
We have recently seen a similar event, on a 
grander scale, in the controversy between the 
North and South. The fictitious mother, who 
had no part in the origin of the stream, who had 
contributed little of her money for the purchase 
of the territory along its hanks, was clamorous 

for d but the North, With true maternal 

i, bo bravely and effectually lifted voice 
and hand against the measure, that she finally 

carried off the undivided prize. 



120 



THE BODY POLITIC. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Our Landed Estate, and How We Have a 
Rich Unclk. 

A people claiming recognition as a state, with- 
out territorial domain, would bo as unreasonable 
as a spirit that should attempt to take part in 
the labors and struggles of this world after -'shuf- 
fling off this mortal coil." 

Archimedes required a plaee whereon to stand 
as a necessary precedent to the performanee of 
his celebrated feat of moving the world, a work 
which he never accomplished, from the fact that 
people thought the globe had motion enough in 
the old and natural way, and never went to the 
trouble and expense of furnishing the philoso- 
pher with the stipulated standing room. 

Many an ambitious man has considered him- 
self capable of founding an empire, if he could 
have room and verge for carrying out his plans. 
Many a brave people has had its grand schemes 
of empire thwarted by the rude unwillingness of 
some stronger race to allow it the use of a free 
and unincumbered soil. 

Since "a local habitation" is essential to the 



OUH LANDED V.sTATK AND RICH (TNCLX. 1 'J 1 

enjoyment of a national "name," the question 

how territory may be acquired lias always been 
among the first subjects demanding practical 
consideration by an incipient nation. 

• Let ua get territory — honestly if we can. dis- 
honestly it" we must: any way. let us have terri- 
tory" — has been the practical maxim of all na- 
s. When Dido, first Queen of Carthage, set 
forth to found a little kingdom, she struck a bar- 
gain with a sturdy African landholder for so 
much ground as she could cover with a bull's 
hide. The vender, unused to the sharp practice 
of land speculators, supposing that the woman 
I have no other design in the purchase of so 
small a piece of land than to make a burial place. 
sold the ground for a paltry stun. What was 
his astonishment to see the woman cut the bull's 
bide int-» narrow >trips and stretch it over land 
enough for a little kingdom! Having been out- 
witted by a woman, he had the gallantry to sub- 
mit and acknowledge the legality of the sale. 

A great many ambitious men have carved em- 
pire- for themselves out of other people's land. 
Their titles to their blood-bought possessions 
been respected so long as they have been 

t<> hold the sword firmly in their hand-. 

Their "most Catholic and christian majes- 

ern Europe li^ri held the doctrine 
11 



122 THE BODY POLITIC. 

that discovery gave them the right of possession. 
In sending forth their ships of discovery toward 
the west, adventurers were supplied with crosses 
and colors, which they piously and patriotically 
erected on whatsoever lauds they discovered, 
thus taking formal possession for their sover- 
eigns. The native Indians, being pagans, were 
not supposed to have any rights which Christians 
were bound to respect 

Spain. England, France, Portugal, and Hol- 
land claimed the Western Hemisphere as their 
rightful possession, and since 

"Their right there was none to dispute/* 

except a few naked and unarmed savages, they 

had no great trouble t<> maintain their claims. 

Happily tor the interests of X<»rth America, 
England asserted and finally made good her 

claim to the country lying along the Atlantic 
coast from Maine to the Carolinas. The land 
was considered, immediately on its discovery, as 
the property of the Crown. Fortunately for the 
interests of mankind, kings are generally p< >or, 
and are often under the necessity of resorting 
to various expedients for the purpose of raising 
money. 

The debts and embarrassments of the kings 
of England induced them very soon to dispose of 






OUB LANDED BRATS AND RTCH UNOLB. 123 

their "Western lands" in various ways. Some- 
times they sold out extensive tracts to individ- 
uals, as Pennsylvania to William Penn, and .Ma- 
ryland to Lord Baltimore. Again they sold to 
corporations, as the Nfcw England Colonies and 
the Carolina^ Sometimes, as in the case of Vir- 
ginia, the King retained ownership, and consid- 
ered the COlotiistfl aS Ins tenant-. 

The King, however, claimed more or less con- 
trol over the territory of all the colonies, until 
our sturdy forefathers made good their right to 
be absolute and independent proprietors. 

People are Bometimes very liberal in gifts and 
9, it' they have paid but little for what they 

self, or have hut an uncertain title. So the 
*' England, in their charters to proprie- 
and colonies, generally conveyed all the land 
stretching westward to the Pacific Ocean. The 
sequence was that the vaeri forests and prai- 
f the West were "shingled over'* with co- 
al claim-. The claims of Virginia, New 
York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut wer< 
jled and interlaced thai no human art could 
untwisted the twist," had not ( Jon- 

- cut the Grordian knot by requesting the 

- to cede all their unoccupied lands to the 

ernment for the benefit of the whole. 
•uil\- compli< d. 



124 THE BODY POLITIC. 

New York was the first to acquiesce; Virginia 
followed the example, and soon all the states had 
transferred to the General Government their 
claims to unoccupied lands. 

The "Kecords of the World" have very few 
deeds registered in them which set forth trans- 
fers of such magnificent estates. In this exhi- 
bition of magnanimity on the part of his chil- 
dren, Uncle Sam laid the foundation of his vast 

wealth, which has so frequently dazzled the eyes 
of his hopeful nephews, and induced them joy- 
fully to sing : 

"Uncle Sam is rich enough to give us all a farm." 

They have generally realized the fate of other 
nephews and nieces who have huilt great ex- 
pectations Upon the wealth ofrfch uncles. Very 
few have got farms from Government without 
having first made good their titles by their hon- 
est labor. 

.Many people have a passion for buying land, 
and, no matter how large may be their posses- 
sions, they are always willing to buy an 'ad- 
joining farm." Our good Uncle Samuel lias 
manifested the same proclivity, ami has bought 
nearly all the land around him. TFe paid 
§5,000,000 to Spain for Florida, and took upon 
himself the task of driving the wretched Semi- 



OUR LANDXD ESTATE AND RICH CTKCLS. 126 

ta die iwamps which ma<le the 
purchas - - eral millions mor 

II I s Lfl this 

purchase gave him the month of the llissisfi 

and furnished tree outlet and inlet for the 

mmerce of the West, it i bar- 

_ 

Texas, having mm fl ' and a bl< 

war. proved a dear purchase, as the land was 
hardly paid for before the demented dame of the 
I ked up the entire property, per- 
sonal and real, and attempted to walk off with it. 
much to the disgust of Uncle Samuel, who 
compelled to exi at three thousand mill- 

r and her plunder back 
n. 

. N M sjht by a 

outlay. Happily for our fortunes, the 
and Mexican proprietors had stum- 
bled over the precious met the Western 
valleys, without dreaming that they walked in 
- <p in Aladdin's cave Soon after the 
ftlilbrnia, immene gold de] 
uncle i 
thii ! lucky striki 

ever 1»« ■• d or 

rly in the n and distribi 



126 THE BODY POLITIC. 

of his selfish advisers, that he ought not to pother 
his brain with the petty annoyance of peddling 
out his land at retail, that he should sell in tracts 
of not less than one township in extent. lie was 
deluded into a short and unwilling compliance 
with this suggestion; but the kindliness of Ins 
generous heart soon assured him that this policy 
was unwise. It was ungenerous and unkind to 
the poorer people, whom his instincts taught him 
needed most his parental care. He immediately 
resolved to sell in quarter sections. Afterward, 
with the same benevolent intent, lie further sub- 
divided into eighth, and finally into sixteenth 
sections, so that men whOft€ means were limited 
might buy a farm of forty acres. 

Our great governmental landholder has not 
kept his hinds for speculation, nor lias he held 
them at such prices as to place them beyond 
the poorest of the population. II i> regular price 
has been one dollar and a quarter per acre, and 
when lands have been long upon his hands un- 
sold, he has adopted a graduated scale of prices, 
running as low as twelve and a half cents. 

He has adopted the wise and liberal policy of 
giving farms to those who have served as soldiers 
in his wars. Finally, in 1SG2. he solemnly or- 
dained that any person who should become an 



OUR LANDED ESTATE AND RICH UNCLE. 1 1^7 

actual settler on his unoccupied domain should 
have a free gifl of one hundred and sixty acres. 

For states, as well as tor individuals, the Gen- 
eral Government has devised liberal things. 
When it appeared that Urge tracts of public 
land in many of the states were marshy and 
productive of pestilence, Buch lands were given 
to the states in which they lay, that prompt 
measures might be taken for their drainage and 
cultivation. 

It is a part of the compact under which each 
new State has been admitted, that it shall not 
tax public lands within its limits. As a con- 
sideration for this exemption from taxation, a 
ion in every township has been given for 
school purposes, and five per rent, of all Bales 
of public lands has been paid into the state 
treasuri 

In vir\v of the terms under which the public 

lands were originally accepted of the >tates, it 
is improper for Congress to appropriate public 
lands in such a way as shall not benefit all the 
>t;ite> alike. Hence the folly of the persistent 
which i> frequently Indulged in at the 
dour of Congress, for Blices of the public land for 
the promotion of schemes of local interest. 
It may be prudent and proper for the Genera] 



128 THE BODY POLITIC. 

Government, like any other landholder, to give 
part of a possession to augment the value of 
the rest; hence the appropriation of lands for 
the construction of important railroads is the 
dictate of sound policy. He who cajoles the 
Government into large appropriation! for the 
promotion of mere local schemes is practically 
a robber of the public treasury. 

After all the Bales which have been made dur- 
ing three-quarters of a century, yielding a reve- 
nue of two or three millions of dollars per 
annum, and all the princely gifts which have 
been made for purposes wise and otherwise, 
there yet remains in the poseeasion of our great 
governmental proprietary a domain of nearly 
fifteen hundred millions of acree. 

No territory <<»ul<l be better adapted to the 
wants of a great people than that which lies 
between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, ami 
stretches its vast extent through the latitudes 
which lie between the Northern lakes and the 
Mexican Gulf. The Atlantic slope, embracing 
the territory between the Alleghanies and the 
Eastern sea, afforded scope and verge enough to 
exercise all the powers of the nation's early life. 
When maturer powers and activities demanded 
a wider field, the vast valley of the Mississippi 



OUB LANDED ESTATK AND RICH INVLE. 1 2 ( J 

opened its realms of exhauatlees fertility. To 

ct and complete our bodily form, and | 
us dimene - rorthy of our character and des- 
tiny as a people, the Pacific dope became a 

itiful and symmetrical part of our national 
aim 
Political geography treats of the earth in 
ence to its artificial divisions and distinct 
nalities. Physical geography regards the 
I natural characteristics of the globe, and 
knows nothing of the colored pictures on maps 
and globes, which men call states and kingdoms. 
The contour of the continents, both lateral and 
ical, the characteristics of climate and soil, 
the dire prevailing winds and currents 

of tl. - ibjects which demand the atu-n- 

physical geographer. 
After territorial limit- are fixed, and the politi- 
cal map is properly adjusted, a nation has more 

11 its physical than in its political g 
raphy. A- an element with which to estimate 
the character of a nation, the climate, the alti- 
tude, tie I stB, the plains, and mountain 

bave nmrc to do than the territorial ex- 
tent The island of Britain, washed by the 

nortlmri. ml indented witli harbors, is a 

more important portion of the globe, and nnr- 



130 THE BODY POLITIC. 

tures a mightier race, than the vast continent of 
Africa, with its smooth line of coast, unfavorable 
to commerce, and its vast and unexplored ex- 
panse of arid waste. 

He who would thoroughly understand the 
character of an individual man must know 
something of his physical organism — whether 
it is fragile or robust, diseased or sound. He 
must know whether he has nervous, sanguine, 
or lymphatic temperament. He who would 
know a national character should inform him- 
self as thoroughly as possible concerning the 
peculiarities of the land in which the nation 
lives. 

That a man may successfully treat with a for- 
eign nation, Or honorably reside as a diplomatist, 
at a foreign court, he should have sonic acquaint- 
ance with the language of the people with whom 
he has to deal. Knowledge of equal value and 
higher necessity is that which relates to the 
physical characteristics of the people and their 
land. Furnished with such knowledge, he can 
balance the peculiarities of the nation with 
whom he treats, by those of the people for whom 
he acts. 

Scenery and climate have much to do in ac- 
counting for English persistency, French ira- 



OUB LANDED B8TAT1 AND RKll UNCLE, 131 

petuosity, Swiss liberty, Italian softness, and 
American enterprise. 

A beautiful body and affluent fortune some- 
times seem at variance with the highest moral 

and intellectual traits, as serene skies and fields 

Of exhaustless fertility do often depress rather 
than elevate a people. 

In the American country the beautiful and 
the excellent greatly predominate, yet there is a 
sufficient admixture of the rough and incorrigi- 
ble to deplete our pride. Nature is not so lavish 
with her spontaneous productions that industry 
mes a foreign and unnecessary virtue, lien 
here must lay aside the gaudy garments of aris- 
tocratic pride, and labor for daily bread. 

In giving this country to the American peo- 

; the Divine Being pursued a policy similar 

to that which characterized the distribution of 
wine in the marriage feast. The rougher locali- 
were first opened to settlement and civiliza- 
tion, while the fruitful and salubrious plains of 
the West were withheld until the wilderness of 
the East was caused to bloom. Had these flowery 
and fertile prairies been opened for husbandry 
a hundred years ago, the patient plowman had 
not been contenl to cultivate the stony acres 
of th<- Bast and those now smiling abod< 



132 THE BODY POLITIC. 

wealth and beauty had been abandoned to hope- 
less sterility. 

Our long and deeply indented lines of sea- 
coast, our vast rivers, our great lakes, our fertile 
plains, our lofty mountains, all combine to form 
a physical structure admirably fitted to be the 
bodily abode of the American Republic. 



FOLLY OF AFFECTION FOR A PART. 133 



CHAPTER XV. 

Folly of Affection for a Part and Hatred 
of thk Whole. 

M<in TF.sQriFr affirms that a republican govern- 
ment is adapted only to a email territory, and 
that a large extent of country can only be well 
governed as a monarchy. He *ays that sectional 
jealousy must inevitably overthrow a republic 
1 of large domain. 
The of the United States is at variance 

with the theory of the French philosopher, and 
d the problem by which the largest ter- 
ritory may be united as one body politic. A 
Community of states, united under one general 
inn* lit. u r i v e- to every section the power of 
rning itself by laws adapted to its local cir- 
cumstances, while the grand combination of com- 
monwealth^ presents such a powerful presence 
before other nations, that security from foreign 
DA is obtained, and perpetuity of na- 
tional existence realized. 
Sectional prejudice is a most unreasonable folly 



134 THE BODY POLITIC. 

in the American people. A particular feature of 
the human body may be regarded with more ad- 
miration than others, and may possess points of 
beauty and utility denied to fellow-members, yet 
no ill-will is cherished toward the less favored 
parts. Pain may penetrate a portion of the body, 
revealing the presence of disorder, and there may 
arise in the mind seriou> thoughts of desperate 
remedies for the removal of disease, without the 
least ill-feeling toward the disabled part. 

The ancient fable of the " Belly and the Mem- 
bers " teaches an excellent moral, and yet, in the 
details of the narrative, it is romance rather than 
reality. The members of the body, in real life, 
never engage in vain disputations, nor break out 
into open hostility. They have not guch sense 
of self-sufficiency as would prompl them to carry 
on a controversy. No man in waking moments 
lms ever heard his hand, in angry expostulation 

with Ids foot, say, •• I have no need pf thee!"' 

Such scenes transpire only in parable. 

The nation endowed with ordinary instincts 

of self-preservation, and possessed of suitable 
pride of character, will not submit to the ordeal 
of amputation. He who shall boast his ability 
to perform this feat of political surgery, and at- 
tempt to give practical exhibition of his skill, 



FOLLY OF AFFECTION FOR A FART. 185 

should incur the odium and the penalties of 
treason. 

The limbs "fitly joined together 91 will, in all 
time to come, refuse to be separated, and prefer 
to walk along the dusty path of future life in 
company. Their mutual assistance and sympa- 
thy will beguile the long journey of its tedious- 
and render effectual every effort to remove 
an obstacle and surmount a barrier. When the 
nation " lays down her arms '* she will be on her 
"last legs;' 1 her race will be run and her ca- 
reer accomplished. 

In such a sad event, her burial-place should be 
at the BS-roads, where suicides were interred 
in olden times. Shapeless heaps of stones were 
a, to attract the attention of 
a, and excite abhorrence of the inhuman 
crime which brought them to such disgrace- 
ful end. 

dlar should be the last and eternal resting- 
Of our dead nationality, since no human 
hand has power to take her life except with her 
own cooperation and consent. She alone, dwell- 
d the impregnable fortress where her life is 
guarded, has power with the murderous steel to 
reach the secret springs of her vitality. She 
alone has power to direct the spark of conflagpa- 



136 THE BODY POLITIC. 

tion so that it may fall upon the explosive ma- 
terial hidden away in the most secret recess of 
her citadel. 

The cry of " Sectionalism," often raised to ter- 
rify men and drive them from adherence to 
cherished principles, is a word most sadly abased 
and ignorantly misunderstood. Nothing hut (he 
most willful perversity would brand a man with 
-'sectionalism," because he advocates doctrines 
which are popular in one locality and odious in 
another. Great principles, whether of physical 
or political science, have existence independently 
of time and place. They remain steadfast, though 
every empire of the earth were swept away, and 
every mountain carried into the midst of tin- 
He who becomes the disciple of such principle 
follows no ignis fatuuS) which flics with the shad- 
ows at the dawn of day. It shall outlive the 
earth where it has its temporary field of applica- 
tion and development, and shall forever honor 
him who was its advocate during the mundane 
3'ears of its unpopularity. 

There can he no "sectionalism" in advocating 
principles as wide in their application as the uni- 
verse. There is "sectionalism" in assuming the 
championship of doctrines which have their chief 
popularity in Pandemonium, and are limited in 



FOLLY OF AFFKCTION FOB A PART. 137 

their sway to places where the powers of dark- 
ness rule. There 18 ••sectionalism" when a citi- 
zen puts on pride because of Massachusetts or 
Virginia birthj hut none in advocating the great 
principles of Truth, though their application 
should disturb the moral and mental repose of 
half an empire. There was " sectionalism" when 
ilaync and Webster made great orations con- 
cerning the amount of glory which South Caro- 
lina and Ma>sachusetts should respectively pos- 
sess in consideration of their services in the 
Eevolution. There was no "sectionalism" in the 
bold defense of the Eight of Petition, uttered by 
John Qnincy Adams on the floor of Congiv-- ; 
nor yet in the opposition which certain eham- 
ls of Truth presented against the Fugitive- 
Law, when they declared it contrary to 
the principles of Christianity and the rights of 
man. In this defense, and in this opposition, 
there was true and expansive patriotism, loving 
the whole country, and sorrowing for sins in 
which all are implicated, and yet a part reap the 
most direct effects and bitter fruits. 

N >w, that the civil war is over and the arro- 
gant dogma of State-rights has gone down amid 
the Btorm of battle we may expect that the local 
u^ie* which have so long divided the peoplo 
12 



138 



THE BODY POLITIC. 



will soon disappear. The foolish passion called 
" State pride" is unworthy of strong-minded, pa- 
triotic Americans. It should be left to eke out 
the scanty intellectual treasures of him who 

"Never had a dozen thoughts in all his life/' 

and thinks 

u The visual line that girds him round, the World's extreme. 91 



DEADLY DISORDER — DESPERATE REMEDY. 139 



0HAPTE8 XVI. 

How Deadly Disorder is Contracted and Cuke 

Accomplished by Desperate Remedy. 

M<>st of the evils which annoy manhood have 
their origin in youth. In that fertile and sus- 
ceptible soil an enemy sows tares, which root 
out good grain and disappoint the harvesters. 

When a sin would gain admission into youth- 
ful hearts and hands, it does not present its hid- 
eous and Unsightly front before the face of him 
who shall become its victim. He would be ap- 
1 by the repulsive Bight, and retreating 
within himself, would bar and bolt the avenues 
<>f hi- -"id against tin' monster, which 

••To be hated needs but to be seen.'' 

There is always some part of a sin bearing a 
faint resemblance to a feature of virtue which 
may be indicative of an ancient affiliation or 
fraternity. The sin may once have been a 
member of the beautiful household of the vir- 
tues; but, breaking away from the family re- 
straints, it becomes the foster-child of Satan, 

OOming forth into the WOlid, after many years 



140 THE BODY POLITIC. 

of pupilage, having only a very faint resem- 
blance to indicate its relationship. 

Sin is full of craftiness and wisdom, when she 
would insinuate herself into youthful hearts. 
She presents at first only those features which 
have traces of beauty, wherein she has her sole 
remaining resemblance to virtue. The victim 
is deceived by the specious appearance, and im- 
agines that he admits the advances of the sin 
from admiration of the virtue to which it has 
resemblance. 

When Satan determined to use human slavery 
as a snare in which to capture this new conti- 
nent, that he might engulf its rising hopes be- 
neath the desolating ocean, he did not use the 
knotted cables which subsequently bound us 
ignominiously in the dust. When tirst his net 
of bondage was thrown over us. it was light as 
the gossamer which stretches its airy length over 
the grassy spires of the meadow. It was not 
the slavery nor the slave-trade of 18G0 in which 
he enlisted our unsuspecting forefathers. The 
latter was the legitimate but degenerate off- 
spring of their mild and venial error. 

The mild and benevolent Las Casas, a mis- 
sionary among the Indians, first suggested the 
introduction of negro slaves into America. In- 
dians had been reduced to slavery by the Span- 



DEADLY DI80ROKK- — OESPERATK RXMEDY. Ml 

uurds, and wore being rapidly exterminated by 
the labors and hardships to which they were 
subjected. Las Qaaaa, in the kindness of his 
heart, pitied the " poor Indians/' and proposed 
that Africans be used to supply their places. 
The suggestion was eagerly caught up, and an 
importation of slaves brought from Africa. The 
experiment proved fortunate for both dealers 
and masters, as one negro was found to be worth 
four Indians. The interests of commerce and 
agriculture being enlisted in favor of African 
slavery, its progress could not be stayed. In 
vain did the good ha> Casas lament what he had 
done, and attempt to mend the mischief He 
had •• robbed Peter to pay Paul/ 1 As a priest of 
. he would have been far from committing 
depredations upon any apostolic personage, and 
especially, however feloniously inclined, would 

he have withheld his hand from the "Greatest 
of the Apostles," the foundation of the Church, 
the antecedent of the Popes. However urgent 
Paul might be in demanding payment, every 
sentimenl in his good Catholic heart would have 

hindered him from literally fulfilling the condi- 
tions of the proverb. How happy had it been 
for America, bad he avoided the spirit as well as 
the letter I 

We may very properly and innocently have 



142 THE BODY POLITIC. 

our preferences for particular races. We can 
not reject the testimony of our eyes when they 
telL us that one race is more highly endowed 
than another. In ordinary circumstances, in 
the retirement of our private lives, or even 
on the mole-hills of promotion which we reach 
in public career, there can be no harm in ex- 
pressing admiration for a favorite race and dis- 
taste for the uncomely qualities of a dissimilar 
people. If, however, we stood at a crisis in t lie 

world's history when an expression of our pref- 
erence! would turn one of the groat familh 
man into perpetual bondage, it wen* better to 

have the tongue cleave to the roof of the mouth 
than to commit the sin of uttering a syllable. 
It was nearly a century after the mistake of 

Las Gasas, about the time of the landing of the 
Pilgrims at Plymouth Bock, that a Dutch tea- 
sel landed a cargo of twenty African slaves at 
the village of Jamestown, in Virginia. Thus the 
evil of slavery spread from the Spanish prov- 
inces to the English settlements. Pandora's box 
was opened, and the brood of mischief was let 
loose upon the continent. 

The slave-trade, being profitable, was encour- 
aged by the mother country. Her capitalists 
embarked their fortunes in the enterprise, and 
realized rich returns. James II and Charles II 



DEADLY DISORDER — DF.Sl'KRATE REMEDY. 143 

were both stockholders in English slave-trading 

companies. The colonics remonstrated against 
the traffic by which slaves were introduoed upon 

their soil : hut the capital of England was en- 

i. and she disregarded the wishes of her 

dependencies. At the date of the Revolution, 

300,000 alavefl had been brought to the colonies 
from Africa. 

One of the acts of the Congress, which asserted 
our independence of Great Britain, declared the 
African slave-trade at an end. The infamous 
traffic was revived by act of 1788, and allowed a 
of life for twenty years. Our forefathers 
wished to indulge in the sweet and profitable sin 
a little longer, but declared, by solemn enactment, 
that after 1n ,c the African slave-trade should be 
red piracy. 

Slavery was legalised in states where it ex- 
isted, with the expectation, however, of all by 
whose votes the deed was done, that it was only 
a thing of temporary expediency, and that soon 
the evil would be done away. 

Bvil, as well as good, has a reflex influence. 
It pays in kind. The measure ■ man met 
measured to him sgain. [fa man Bends forth a 
. deed to bless the world, it never wanders 

r away, that it may QOl return to bleSS the 
doer. before he dies. An evil may be done in 



144 THE BODY POLITIC. 

secret, and be hidden away where none but the 
perpetrator knows its place of burial ; but it 
waits for no resurrection trumpet to bid it come 
forth from its concealment. In open day. at- 
tended by a long train of consequences, it gOefl to 
take up its abode with him who gave it birth, 
whether he live in wooden cottage or in marble 
hall. In the philosophy of the moral world, 
the angle of incidence always hears such rela- 
tion to the angle of reflection, that when a good 
or evil is launched from a human hand, it never 
fails to strike the doer in its rebound. Thoso 
who Violated the rights of the negro race, in re- 
ducing it to a state of bondage did not fail to tind 
that injury to themselves was oloee companion 
to the wrong they did to others, and that the 
two were destined to walk in parallel paths 
throughout a long career. 

In the early history of the American Union, 
the votes which recognized slavery as an insti- 
tution of the land seemed but the tying of silken 
cords, so lightly and so loosely knotted, as to be 
easily, and at any time, untied. By a well-estah- 
lished law, the cords grew stronger and more 
tightly drawn, until at last the nation found her- 
self bound hand and foot. 

Consequences the most unhappy soon ensued. 
The nation was retarded in her growth, and the 



DEADLY D1B0RDH — PF.sfkraTK RSMKDY. 148 

expanding limbs were chafed. Mortification 
at length ensued, which spread with alarming 
rapidity, until many despaired of the sufferer's 
life. 

Physicians were called in who promoted rather 
the progress than the cure of the disease. While 
the disease should continue, their services would 
be in demand; but with the accomplishment 
of cure, their skill would be no longer needed. 
Besides, having grown up by the side of the dis- 
order, breathing its atmosphere from childhood, 
they had almost grown to regard disease as the 
normal condition, ami with easy consciences 
they indulged in the malpractice of prolonging 
the nation's disability. 

In recent years there has been a great increase 
in the number of " Doctors of Law-."' A- supply 
seldom goes greatly in advance of demand, this 
multiplication of "LLJD.V 1 may indicate in- 
creasing malady in the constitution and the 
laws, 

Jt is conceded, among colleges and learned 
men, that the President of the United States 
should be a Doctor of Laws. PoQO OO O O d of pro- 

nal skill and prestige, he will be better able 

to feel the public pulse and promote the nation's 
health. 

As a violent and contagious disease seized uporf 

1.; 



146 THE BODY POLITIC. 

South Carolina in the time of Jackson's admin- 
istration, Harvard University very wisely and 
patriotically created the hero of New Orleans a 
Doctor of Laws. The prompt and efficient pre- 
scription with which he checked the progress of 
the disorder proved him possessed of his title by 
better right than that by which many doctors 
hold diplomas. 

Time produces great changes. The progress 
of years brings about beautiful compensations. 
The year 1859! saw South Carolina so far ad- 
vanced in physical soundness and intellectual 
vigor as to possess a college capable of confer- 
ring a learned degree. This college corporation 

was possessed Of such humane solicitude for t lie 
public weal as to cause our aged chief-magistrate, 
who had spent an ordinary lifetime with no 
title more euphonious or august than "Mr." or 
"Esq.,'' to be known in the world of politics and 
letters as Dr. Buchanan. 

Every physician has his specialty — some form 
of disease which he welcomes to the onset, being 
sure that the result will render his professional 
laurels more umbrageous. A certain doctor, 
who prided himself on his success in treating 
"fits,- 1 always took pains to throw his patients 
into fits, feeling confident of their recovery 
when he got them into that form of disease in 



DEADLY DISORDER — DESPF.RATK REMEDY. 147 

which his skill was always triumphantly BUC- 
rfuL 

Dr. Buchanans purposes in employing bis 
Peculiar mods of treatment must be conjectured 
from his practice ami its consequences. Hi- was 
wry efficient in producing "fits" in the body 
politic, hut exceedingly unskillful in bringing 
his patient out of the epileptical ami hysterical 
to. 

Bome of his subordinates had a taste tor am- 
putations, and labored hard to produce a condi- 
tion in which the public voice would demand 
the "heroic practice 11 of dismemberment. 
In I860, when the disease had grown m<>>t 
c popular voice loudly ami emphat- 
ically demanded a change of practice. Dr. Bu- 
Ived notice that his Bervicqs were no 
;er required One of his subordinates was 

amhitini;^ oboSOD hi" SUCCCSSOr, hut the 

unwilling, and signified their pref- 
er ;m honest citizen, who had long lived 
apart from public lift*, and was unrecognized 
:mi"!!L f the titled ami distinguished. With diffi- 
dent i upon his Arduous labors. 

human being ever undertook a great pub- 
little enoouragemei I peqt 
i 
navy wai na- 



148 THE BODY POLITIC. 

tional arms were in the hands of enemies. At 
this unhappy juncture, Abraham Lincoln entered 
upon the work of suppressing the rebellion, and 
restoring the Government to its old integrity. 

When God's time and the nation's necessity 
had come, Abraham Lincoln sent forth his sol- 
emn proclamation by which a race of bondmen 

was disenthralled. So successful were all his 
plans for the deliveranee of the nation, and so 

nearly universal the confidence in his fidelity, 
that, with voice as unanimous as possible in a 

country where sentiments are various and the 
expression of opinion tree, he was Continued in 
an office to which his administration was contin- 
ually adding luster. 

Just as the finishing blows were tailing Upon 
the rebellion, and his heart was devising a 
scheme of mercy for his enemies, lie tell a vic- 
tim to the malady against whose encroachments 

on the life of the Republic he had labored with 
80 signal success. Abraham Lincoln surren- 
dered his life as the last sacrifice in his country's 
cause. 

The overthrow of the armies of the rebellion 
insured the radical removal of the great national 
malady, for the maintenance and extension of 
which the insurgent military force was or- 
ganized. An amendment to the Constitution, 



D1ADLY DISORDKR D18P1KAU ri:mi-:i>y. 14$ 

haying received the approval of the requisite 
Dumber of states, and become the law of the 
land, has numbered slavery among the by- 
gone abuses which dominated over the unhappy 

past, bin now are buried beyond the reach oi' 

resurrection. 



150 THE BODY POLITIC. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Nervousness — A Modern Malady which Be- 
falls the Mother of First Families. 

Nervousness is a disease possessed in copart- 
nership by the body and the mind. It is exceed- 
ingly prevalent in modern times. So healthy 
were the nerves of our ancestors, and so unobtru- 
sively did the nervous system perform its func- 
tions, that many of them never knew that they 
were possessed of the subtle threads which sub- 
serve sensitive and motory purposes. Some wri- 
ters have asserted that nerves are a modern 
invention, like the steam-engine and the mag- 
netic telegraph. 

"AVe take no note of time but from its loss," 
so we scarcely recognize ourselves as possi 
of nerves until they become disordered and dis- 
eased. Nervousness is a form of disability es- 
pecially prevalent in modern times. 

It is a disease more prevalent in appearance 
than in reality, from the fact that nervousness 
has become a kind of euphemism, or apologetic 
cloak under which to conceal unhappy traits and 
dispositions, or give them an appearance pre- 
sentable in society. What was once distinctly 



NKUVotSNKSS. A MOPKRN MALADY. 151 

called ill-nature is now known as " nervous irri- 
tability." 

In ancient times, when fear took possession of 
a man and caused his knees to smite together, or 
induced him to perform extraordinary feats of 
agility in augmenting the distance between him- 
self and a dangerous neighbor, he was called a 
''coward;" but now he is charitably described 
as " nervous." 

Instances are not wanting in our national his- 
tory in which our body politic has fallen into a 
state of "nervousness." 

A few years ago, an old man with a score of 
liatee made a sudden and unexpected visit 
t<> a Tillage in the mountains of Virginia. The 
Mother of Presidents, grown old and nervous, 
me deeply and dangerously agitated. Symp- 
- of hysteria began to appear. Ominous 
tidings by telegraph aggravated the symptoms. 
A telegram informed hfer that a man had been 
seen crossing the Ohio River at Wheeling, with 
intentions Apparently hostile to the Old Domin- 
ion. This news brought another shriek of terror 
from the despairing dame, who could only be 
qtiieted by assuranees. from her chief public 

servant, that he would order out three thousand 
valiant men, who Bhoold defend her sacred soil. 
i telegraphic operator, having been misin- 



152 THE BODY POLITIC. 

formed in some important particulars concerning 
the passage of the Ohio, and wishing to relieve the 
hysterical lady, sends word that the person who 
had crossed the river was a negro, going not 
toward, but from Virginia. To render still further 
relief and set her fears entirely at rest, he kindly 
informed her that, as the negro had arrived in 
Canada, Virginia had nothing further to fear 
from him. 

This well-meant act proved "the unkindest cut 
of all." The old lady was wounded in the ten- 
derest part. Violence was done to her maternal 
instincts. Could she have believed that it would 
ever come to this, that her own children should be 
wanting in love, especially at such a time, and 
desert their poi>r old mother in this hour of her 
great extremity? The word which the blunder- 
ing operator had put in with kindliest intent — 
namely, -negro." — sunk the deepest in her heart. 
The negro! how sincere had been her maternal 
affection for that child — and her love ''passing 
the love of woman I 1 ' For none other of her 
children had she spent so many years of so- 
licitude and anxiety; of none other had she so 
carefully calculated the value in dollars and 
cents; from none other had she expected greater 
revenues with which to prop her declining years; 
of none other had she more confidently boasted 



NSEYOU8NBB8, A MODERN MALADY. 163 

to her neighbors of the filial affection and cheer- 
ful obedience. 

To be abandoned in such an hour by ungrate- 
ful offspring, is to have the poignant shall of 
■onow sunk deepest into the soul. 

Jeremy Taylor givefl a good illustration of the 
state of things in a ease like this. That excel- 
lent and quaint divine declares the affection of 
parents for their children is like the mighty 
cataract, pouring its weight of waters over the 
precipice, while the return of love which children 
make to parents is like the mist which rises from 
the gulf below. 

•Alas! alasl" sobs the terror-stricken and 
grief-dejected creature. •• I have confided too 
much in the affection of my ungrateful children. 
My heart still yearns after them, though un- 
thankful and unworthy. The man who has left 
me was worth a thousand dollars — perhaps fifteen 

hundred — as great a 1--- SS if BO much Virginia 
currency had been sunk in the Bea. I fear 
others will follow the pernicious example, and J 
shall soon stand another "Niobe of nations." 
"Alas! alas! sighs the disconsolate dame, 

with thoughts of thrift and economy running 

like a thread of cotton through her grief; "alas I 
r bis marketable value of a thousand or fif- 
teen hundred dollars IS not my only loesl H<»\v 






154 THE BODY POLITIC. 

many years did he eat of my healthful hoe-cake 
and wear garments of ' Virginia cloth,' woven of 
tow grown on my own hills! How many times 
his own now worthless weight has he consumed of 
my far-famed and highly-flavored tobacco ! All is 
lost upon one who has ungratefully gone to bestow 
his labors and his love upon strangers! Had he 
only gone to dwell among his mother's friends, 
I could endure the separation witli belter heart. 
I would also have something to show in his stead ; 
something wherewith to solace myself in the 
bereavement. He would also dwell in a warmer 
climate, and have some one to protect him and 
oversee his interests. As it is. between Northern 
fanatics and Northern winters, 1 fear I shall 
never see the cheerful shadow of his face again!" 
The infirm old lady hereupon falls hack into 
the arms of attendants, in a state of nervous 
prostration. She has only strength, with -haled 
breath," to whisper her sanguinary decree, that 
all Abolitionists shall be hanged by the neck 
until they are dead, as a consequence of which, 

11 John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave, 
But his soul is marching on !"' 

So severe an attack of nervousness could not 
befall a single member without influence upon 
parts adjacent. The shock was so violent upon 



NERVOUSNESS, A MODERN MALADY. 155 

the Southern half of the body politic, already shat- 
tered by disease, that a stroke oi^ paralysis was 
imminent. Indeed, for many years, the Southern 
arm of industry had heen partially paraly/.ed. 
The foot had halted with a paralytic's limp 
along the high-road of progress. Nothing but 
the continually present strength and cooperation 
of the strong and healthy side could have car- 
ried the weak and trembling limbs of the South 
so high. 

The nervous system of the Northern states 
has sometimes been wrought upon by groundless 
fears. Dread of Quakers and Anabaptists ex- 
cited the New England Colonies in their infancy. 
Horror of witches filled the minds of New Eng- 
land's gray fathers, otherwise most sedate and 
self-contained. The impression which unac- 
countably gained currency, that such beings as 
witches could exist, was itself a strange spell of 
witchcraft. 

Among the phantoms which for many years 
aroused our childish fears, the dread of a disso- 
lution of the Union stalked tallest and darkest 
before our excited fancy. On many occasions 
had we thought ourselves in the hands of this 
bloody Polyphemus, who was about to tear us 
limb fr<»m limb. In those times of extremity 
cried mightily for a season of respite] and 



156 THE BODY POLITIC. 

frantically declared our willingness to yield ev- 
erything, or compromise anything, that our sym- 
metrical and mutually attached limbs might a 
little longer remain together. 

Insane persons sometimes suppose themselves 
to be made of glass, and fear to make the slight- 
est motion, lest their vitreous substance should 
be broken. A similar hypochondria seems at 
one time to have taken possession of* the na- 
tion. She feared to take any decided steps and 
to make any great progressive movement, lest 
some accidental jar might render her worthless 
as a broken bottle. 

In medical practice the galvanic battery is 
sometimes used with good effect Upon nervous 
and paralytic patients. The batteries of rebell- 
ion brought to bear upon the body politic, with 
intent to produce dismemberment, had the con- 
trary effect. The Republic, aroused from leth- 
argy and divested of foolish fears, met the emer- 
gency with a strength and calmness which as- 
tonished all beholders. The vigorous effort gave 
strength and tone to disordered nerves, and re^ 
stored health and soundness to the public mind. 



THE PUBLIC KIND. 157 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
The Mind WHICH Animates the Body POLITIC, 

An ancient author wisely prayed that he 
might have a "sound mind in a sound body" — 
"Sana men* in sano corpore." This prayer com- 
prehends a wide range of blessings, and in its 
answer includes immeasurable good. 

The comprehensive blessing which the patriot 
wishes for himself, he desires no less ardently 
for his country. If a wise man. he prays for the 
health and soundness of his country more ar- 
dently than far her military glory and commer- 
cial greatnt 

Our country has a frame possessing Boms re- 
semblance to the body which individual souls 
inhabit. This body is of like passions with our- 
selves, since we, living and moving atoms, arc its 
component parts. 

To Bay that the nation has no soul, no vital 
principle, would be to take away its chief title to 
our love and admiration. We should Bee OUT 
country adorned with no attributes more respect- 
able than those which the frogfl of ancient fable 

beheld in their famous • hang Log/ 1 and without 



158 THE BODY POLITIC. 

treasonable criminality might hold it in similar 
contempt. 

What is the precise nature of 'the vital spark 
of heavenly flame " which- glows within the hu- 
man breast is an unfathomcd mystery. Did we 
know the deep foundations of the individual 
soul, and its mode of existence, we might com- 
prehend the public mind. 

The soul of an individual man is more import- 
ant, in many respects, than that which animate 
the nation. The former is a citizen of two worlds, 
the latter of but one. The former has attributes 
which shall lead it through all the hereafter, and 
render it coeval with eternity, while the latter 
has no element in its nature adapting it to 
localities, or periods beyond the boundaries of 
time. 

Although the attribute of immortality gives to 
the individual soul a value which the common- 
wealth has not, yet emergencies sometimes arise 
when it is the duty of the patriot to sacrifice his 
life to prolong the existence of the state. The 
very fact that an individual soul is infinite in 
duration, while that of the state is finite, may 
furnish an additional motive, when duty calls a 
man to sacrifice his earthly life that the national 
existence may be prolonged. Once dead, a na- 
tion never has a resurrection morn, never hears 



THE PUBLIC MIND. 159 

a reanimating voice, while the individual looks 
forward to a heritage of eternal ages. 

Although the state is a creature of this world, 
and destined to no lite in any other sphere, its 
existence >ustains an important relation to the 
happiness o\' millions. It is appropriately de- 
nominated the " Commonwealth," since the weal 
and wealth of every citizen is greatly depend- 
ent upon the perpetuity of a wisely regulated 
government. Millions might appropriately lay 
down their lives in battle, that surviving mill* 
ions and unborn generations might enjoy the 
sings of a government so good and great as 
ours. 

Patriotism is a beautiful virtue, the crowning 
ornament of a noble character. There is. how- 
no virtue so pure and lovely that there may 
DOt be, lurking somewhere within it. a p<>^j- 
bility win eh may grow up into a hideous sin or 
a monstrom folly. When patriotism grows into 
idolatry of country, it becomes a debasing sin. 
That patriotism is wrong-headed and perverse 
which would make a constitution more sacred 
than t lie Bible, and place the desultory enact- 
ments Of wrangling representatives above the 
"Higher law." 

Patriotism,, being a virtue inculcated by the 

Bible, flourishes best under the genial sunshine 



160 THE BODY POLITIC. 

of Christianity. The Christian patriot loves his 
country, notwithstanding some obvious imper- 
fections, for he sees in its laws and constitution 
the wisdom of many great and God-directed 
men. He loves his country, for lure is his home, 
here dwell his friends, and here his children are 
to inherit the legacy of liberty. His professions 
of patriotism are not made because he is hand- 
somely paid, or expects to hold high political 
position as reward of his expenditure of breath. 
He is not so infatuated as to suppose that patri- 
otism can perform the offices of Othei virtues, 
and write his passport to all worldly BU< 
and heavenly happiness. 

Our public mind, like that of every well-reg- 
ulated individual, consists of three departments — 
the Intellect, the Sensibilities, and the Will. Our 
sensibilities have the largest and fullest develop- 
ment. Intellect has not yet asserted the sway 
which it enjoys in mature and highly culti- 
vated minds. We are not yet an intellectual 
people. We have been so fully occupied in build- 
ing cities and creating new states, that we have 
of necessity devoted ourselves rather to action 
than reflection. 

Like most youthful and immature minds, we 
delight in the excitements of sentiment and 
passion. As a people we delight to have our 



THE PUBLIC MIND. 1(U 

feelings aroused, and deem it a matter of no 
great importance whether the emotions excited 
are agreeable or otherwise. It is true that, 
"other things being equal," we would rather 
have the emotions produced by good news than 
by bad. The arrival of the "Great Eastern" 
would produce more welcome tidings than its 
Wreck. News that the Atlantic telegraph is laid 
and in working order would produce more agree- 
able sensations than did the announcement that 
the enterprise had failed; yet we are always 
" glad to hear the news." 

The doubtful compliment contained in the as- 
sertion of the existence of "an old head on young 
shoulders 11 baa not been pronounced on the 
American Republic. Our public mind, though 
chars I by steady development, has not 

outgrown the body. 

Ourjudgment is not yet mature. We are some* 
times guilty <>t' youthful rashness; we are prone 
to •• let our angry passions rise.' 1 We are quick 
to take offense, and are by no means unready to 
resent an injury. 

There is an amiable trait nearly allied to this 
which pertains to our national character. If our 

resentment is sudden and hot, we do not long 
retain the recollection Of an injury; ami when 
our first L r u>!i of wrath is over, we regret the 
1 \ 



162 THE BODY POLITIC. 

hasty words and deeds in which we have in- 
dulged. We are prone to live by Cicero's noble 
principle: "My enmities are mortal; my friend- 
ships are eternal." 

Our public mind has a quick and sprightly 
fancy, which infuses a pleasing liveliness through 
all our faculties, and relieves us of the sluggish- 
ness which some of our contemporaries possess. 
It has, however, led us into frequent errors. It 
has sometimes caused us to see and hear, where 
neither sound nor vision has had a real exist- 
ence. It has sometimes beheld a new star in the 
heavens, which it has pursued with all the zeal 
of a new-born faith, and found at last that the 
fancied luminary was only the glowing emana- 
tion of an unwholesome marsh. No self-inspired 
and earth-commissioned prophet has arisen in 

our midst, to proclaim doctrines so absurd that 
they have not found enthusiastic welcome from 

us. No apostle has arisen with doctrines so 
whimsical and erratic that he has not found 
favor in' our eyes, if he has put forward a spe- 
cious argument in front of his fallacies. Carried 
away by first impulses, we arc prone to act with- 
out reflection, and give the whole brood of mon- 
strosities a passport to our hearts and homes. 

Some nations, who had their origins in remote 
antiquity, permit Fancy to usurp the place of 



THE IMHI.IC MINI>. IflJ 

Memory, and by ber specious fictions till up the 
interval^ between the few and scattered tacts 
winch remain of early history. Thus Rprang up 
the legends which amuse the readen of ancient 

annals. 

The origin Of our nation 18 BO recent, and the 

printing-press has erected so many contemporary 
memorials along the path of our progress, that 
uur history furnishes no place for the baseless fiib- 
rical aiiey. Memory has undisputed sway 

ever her <>wn province. Pew fhcts pertaining to 
our early national lift have faded from memory, 
l) -till live whose personal recoiled 

the birthday of the nation. 
The ir national memory is oocu- 

il-stirring deeds, which 

>te patriotism and excite emula- 

enerationa. Prom the Gacili- 

vhieh the printing-press aflbrds for Ibrtify- 

i r i ir this department of the public mind, it will 

* in unimpaired to the remotest period of oar 

national life. 

Our public mind derive- it- strength and eti- 

from tic- people. No nation has a popula- 

acre intelligent than the mihs of native-born 

.a- Tie- great and i esponsible work of 

has developed the public mind 

and d g. The private eitiaen of Amur- 



164 THE BODY POLITIC. 

iea has political sagacity and general knowledge 
of national affairs, which in the Old World would 
be looked for only in a statesman. 

In Europe may be seen stupendous peaks of 
intellect, which attract the admiration of distant 
nations by their loftiness and grandeur. Upon 
Dear approach, admiration for European mind is 
materially modified. The intervals between the 
great intellectual eminences consist of gloomy 
valleys and barren deserts. It' the sarants of 
Europe have reared their heads sublimely high, 

the masses lie profoundly low. The intellects of 

the common people have so little of the develop- 
ment and strength which results from self-de- 
pendence, that they readily submit to the dicta- 
tion of any tyrant who may claim the right to 
impose intellectual or political chains upon them. 
In the New World, if we have intellectual ele- 
vations less solitary and sublime, we have valleys 
less low T and obscure. Our public mind has 
resemblance to the vast table-lands of the 2sVw 
World. which rise above the level of the sea. and 
stretch away for thousands of square miles, all 
available for the practical purposes of life. 



THE NATIONAL WILL. 165 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The National Will — Who may Express it, 
and of what color they must be. 

Polemical writers have written many learned 
dissertations on the human will. Many of these 
works have accomplished little more than to 
demonstrate the unanimity with which the minds 
of men ore capable of forming the volition to 
leave them in neglect. The estimable writers 
haw raised a sort of learned dust, which having, 
for a time enshrouded their subjects, has at last 
settled so thickly on their books, that the epi- 
taphs of the authors might be written therein 
witli good prospect of permanence, from the ex- 
treme improbability that readers will ever dis 
turb the deposit on the slumbering tomes. 

However distasteful may be the Will, when 

served op abstractly, in a metaphysical treatise, 

there is nothing distasteful to a man in his own 

eel will." The process of giving it free way 

through the world is very agreeable to every 

man. So long a- there is full liberty in this 

respect, he is on good terms with himself and all 

mankind. 



166 THE BODY POLITIC. 

So long as this liberty does not conflict with 
the moral law, nor interfere with the rights of 
others, it is the interest of all the world that it 
should be secured to every man. This groat 
principle has but lately dawned upon the human 
mind, and has hitherto had but imperfect and 
partial application. It has had practical opera* 
tion and effect only when the ballot-box has Men 
the sacred receptacle of the Tree will of the peo« 
pie. He who would reach forth the arm of 
power to overawe the voter, or the hand of cor- 
ruption be destroy his ballot, commits the high- 
est crime against human Liberty. 

The ballot-box, in its simplicity and ]>nwer. 
presents the highest exhibition of the moral sub- 
lime which the political world affords. Ballots 
drop therein as silently U BB Miow-llakes on the 
sod," yet they fall not so ineffectual and power- 
less to the ground. Like the avalanche loosened 
from the mountain-side, this united expression 
of the popular will overwhelms and buries all 
opposition. 

The suffrage of the masses, striking thrones 
and dynasties, breaks them in pieces, and leaves 
them in fragments, to mark the upward career 
of the human race. 

The term suffrage is derived from the ancient 
word meaning fragment, from the fact that in 



THK RATIONAL WILL. 1(J7 

ancient Greece, where voting was invented, men 
wrote tin ir will upon pieces of broken pottery, 

shells, and east them into a common heap, 
whence they wore counted otV. that the voice ami 
ehoios of the majority might he known. Not 
only in view of the origin, hut the effect of suf- 
frage, IS this etymology correct. The elective 
franchise, properly exercised, tends to reduce 
chains, crowns, and scepters to a fragmentary 
state. 

It would be a happy thing if we could be true 
to etymology in political usage and practice in 
another particular. We use the word candidate 
t<» designate an individual who is set forward by 

-< If or his friends, as an applicant for the 
This word is derived from an 

nt word meaning white or pure, from the 
fhet that persons asking for the votes of their 
fellow-citizens were vulgarly supposed to be pos- 
1 of parity of life and purpose. It was the 
Custom of ancient candidates to array themselves 
in white robes, emblematical of that crystalline 
purity of character which they had, or to which 
they madr pretension. 

It i- to he feared that modern candidates have 

bo far forgotten etymological and moral fitness as 
to appear before the people destitute both of the 

Symbol and the ->ub<tancc. Many of them are 



168 THE BODY POLITIC. 

destitute of the purity of character which the 
fashion of another age was wont to require. It 
appears, also, that they have voted white robes 
inappropriate to the dust and soil of politics, 
and suitable only to be worn in another state of 
existence, after all worldly work is over. From 
the tortuous courses which they pursue, and the 
iniquitous practices in which many of them un- 
happily indulge, it is greatly to be feared that 
the end of earthly work will find them clad in 
the soiled garments of their worldly wear, with 
no provision for anything better in which to 
make appearance at the Heavenly Court. 

The great question of the day. however, is not 
who shall be candidates, but who. as voters, shall 
deeide the claims of aspirants for public favor. 
What qualifications shall tit a man to exercise the 
high function of sovereignty in the republic? 

Age is an important qualification. The indi- 
vidual must have passed the guileless years of 
infancy — in other words, he must have reached 
the age of twenty-one. Under that age he is, 
in the language of the law, an 'infant.'' This 
word means not speaking. The Shakspearean 
child, 

"Mewling and puking in its nurse's arms," 
is an infant proper, not having learned the use 



TtlK NATIONAL WILL. 169 

of articulate sounds for the expression of its 
ideas. A person under twenty-one years of age 
has uo voice nor vote in public affairs, ami conse- 
quently is. in politics and law. an " infant.'* 

Poets have plumed their most felicitous pens 

to describe the happy hours o\' infancy. There 

are elements in this felicity which they have 
never brought to light. A political infant is free 
from the perplexing cares which trouble persons 
who have passed their majority, concerning the 
party policy they shall sustain. He is away 
from the action and counteraction of those 
mighty motives which opposing candidates bring 
to hear upon the voter; each one designing, if 
— Mr. to Secure possession of the entire man, 
and in the Very probable event of his dismem- 

i< nt. to carry off the largest share. Happy 

and <;tiv-five " infant :'" 

That he is denied Recede tti the ballot-box may 
stem a sore affliction to young America, yet it is 
••a blessing in disguise " — a disability designed 

f<>r his good — a means by which some years are 
BeCUIted in which the shoulders are tree from the 

jiit of empire, and the mind unburdened by 

the cares of poll; 

There is, nevertheless, an indirect wnv in 

which young America has an important pari in 

directing public policy ; a mode which is by no 
15 



170 THE BODY POLITIC. 

means a new invention, since it was known to 
" young Greece. " It was said, by an ancient 
writer on Grecian society, that the children ruled 
the mothers, who in their turn ruled the fa 
thers — and thus the rod of empire was primarily 
in tho hands of childhood. 

Individuals or parties, when once possessed of 
power, are loth to surrender it. preferring rather 
to augment than to diminish their prerogative. 
We may be sure that youth has not lost any of 
its importance, or relinquished any of its influ- 
ence. It is a "power behind the throne" which 
should not be overlooked by any one who would 
duly estimate the elements which make up our 
political system. 

Another qualification of the voter is mors 
recondite, requiring for its discovery and appre- 
ciation profound research into the depths of hu- 
man anatomy and physiology. 

The human skin is a compound integument, 
consisting of the cuticle or external part, and the 
true skin. The cuticle is very thin over all parts 
of tho body, save the soles of the feet and the 
palms of the hands. It has no nerves of sensa- 
tion, and may be cut or lacerated without pain. 
In this insignificant portion of the body, which 
is scarcely more a part of the man than his coat 
or his glove, there exists a coloring matter. In 






riiK NATIONAL WILL. 171 

Bnropearia it is nearly white, in American In- 
dians it is red, and in Afrieans H is black. 

Politicians] elevated bo the dignity of law- 
makers, being profound students of the anatomy 
and physiology of the human body, have discov- 
ers '1 that the r< U //"/< a certain race is per- 
il by a black pigment, and have had great vi- 
olence done thereby t<> their refined and cultivated 

tastes! They have lilted u]) their hands in hor- 
ror and indignation that any human being should 
i i perverse as to have his cuticle thus be- 
grimed! They have felt rising in their hearts 
something which politicians call "pride of race." 
the Pharisees, they arc thankful that they 

ar<- ! ther men." Their cuticles abound 

in white pigment I Sappy menl Favored )><>v 
noblest traits of human nature! 
dily surface reflects all the primary <•<>!- 
and greets the eye of the beholder with 
white light, while the miserable African I 
unhappy as t<> absorb all the rays, and -most 
unpardonable sin! — appears black i<> beholders! 
• What an unreasonably selfish man is this net- 
exclaims the indignant politician. "There 
ii primary e<>i<,r<: red. orange, yellow*, 
ii. blue, indigo, and violet. I skillfully < > <»m- 
them all in a beautiful bouquet of white, 
which I cast into the delighted eyei of all who 



172 THE BODY POLITIC. 

look upon me ; but this negro absorbs all tho 
colors and conceals them somewhere in his pach- 
ydermatous surface, and refuses to reflect any 
for the benefit of beholders! Such perverseneBB de- 
serves punishment! The obdurate negro should 
submit to the reformatory process of privation 
of political right-. 

Our politician, being desirous of bolstering up 
his "pride of race." and securing to himself as 
far as possible the exclusive enjoy nient of the 
privileges of citizenship, proceeds to dilate as 
learnedly as be car on the influence of color in 
causing mental inferiority, producing a "prog* 
nathous form of skull." an abnormal length of 

heel, and other ungraceful bodily peculiarities 

inconsistent with intelligent citizenship. 

Persons who get their political gospel from 
politicians are carried away with the weight of 
such argumentation, and afford great instruction 
and delight to loungers about street-corners and 
bar-rooms, with their own deliveries in the same 
exclamatory strain. They all protest against 
being made "equal to a nigger." 

"Be jabers !" cries an indignant specimen of 
a "superior race," "who wud a' thought that it's 
meself must come to this, that I must be consid- 
ered the aqual of a nagur ! It's meself that's 
come from Ireland only a year ago, and yet I 



THE NATIONAL Will.. 17!> 

enjoy the right of sufferin 1 tor his riverince, the 
President of the United States, or any other 
man. And 1 would not think so nmeh of 
putting a piece of paper in the votin' box, for 
niver a word that "s on the paper I can rade me- 

self, only it gits me such fine threatment from 
the gintlemen that's candidates, and I git so 
much good lakurc to dhrink on 'lection day. 
No; Bt Patrick save me from aver votin' for a 
man that 's for degrading me to an aqual with 
the hlack-complected nagur!" 

Another class of the American people has 
advanced a step beyond the position of our for- 
eign born fellow-citizen, having gone so far as 
v. that if pardoned rebels and traitors, whom 
re now intni8ting with the management of 

retracted State-, shall prove recreant to 
the trust imposed in them, and again give evi- 
dence of a persistent purpose to destroy the 

ernment, these liberal-minded citizens will at 

last overcome their Bcruples, and consent that 

the colored man shall step in. a second time, and 

the country. They permitted him to bc- 

come a soldier, as a last resort^ when they found 

rebellion could nol be conquered without his 
help, and th rilling thai he BhaU 1m- Hie 

forlorn hope of the country at the ballot-box. 



174 THE BODY POLITIC. 

Kebels pushed the nation into the waves of 
anarchy and war, but the struggling victim, by 
superhuman exertions, has reached the shore, 
and is endeavoring to regain a foothold on the 
bank. Traitors, who almost accomplished her 
destruction, arc permitted to stand in her way, 
and demonstrate their affectionate regard, by 
keeping her down, oar assisting her to arise, as 
best subserves their whim. We make no BCCTet, 
however, of our magnanimous mental reserva- 
tion, that, if it becomes evident that the unaided 
efforts of the nation to save herself are unavail- 
ing, the negro, who stands near, shall have a 

chance to obey his patriotic impulse, and step in 
to rescue the struggling victim, 

It is not in accordance with the great princi- 
ples upon which our laws and institutions are 
founded, to make the righl of suffrage depend 
upon a physical qualification, such as color. A 
far wiser and better limitation would he an in- 
tellectual ono, by which a certain extent of men- 
tal attainment would be essential to the exercise 
of the highest rights of citizenship. It is un- 
reasonable that a man should vote without hav- 
ing ability to read the name upon his ballot. 

It would be no injustice to any, should the 
principle be adopted of allowing none to vote 
save persons twenty-one years of age. who are 



THK NATIONAL WILL. 17.") 

to read and write. These arts are DO( BO 
udite t hat any man of ordinary capacity 
may not acquire them in a short time with little 
r. The time ami money spent in idleness 
ssary indulgence, it' properly em- 
ployed, w«>nld enable untaughl multitudes to 
master the OCCult arts of reading and chi 
raphy. 

e application of the sovereign people to 
their books would have the effect to compel 
demag _ - and politicians to take to their! 
neglected studies, in order to lit themselves for 
the reception of the votes of more intelligent 
citizens than those by whose suffrages they have 
long been wont to live. Meanwhile the ballot- 
HFer from neglect in the absence 
of these studious voters. The wheeh em- 

inent will move more smoothly ami uoisel< 

than ever, while politicians who have long held 

otfiee by the favor of the ignorant are retired for 
a time to academic shades. 

The adoption of such a qualifieai the 

: WOUld allay the fears of DCTVOUS people 

who dread the consequences of Irish or uegro 
suffir lie claims of the degraded and 

the :_ will be held in abeyance until the 

proper qualification has been reached. 



176 THE BODY POLITIC. 

As universal intelligence is the chief corner- 
stone of a republic, such limitation of the right 
of suffrage would promote the stability of our 
government. The tendency would be to diffuse 
education, and make us the most intelligent na- 
tion on earth. 



HOW POPULAR WILL BECOMES LAW. 177 



II APTER XX. 

Legislation— How the Popular Will, uttered 
at tiik Ballot-box, becomes the Law. 

The ballot-box is our mouthpiece — its utter- 
ance is the public voice. Should it be destroyed, 
the people would be voiceless, and the public 
Will would have no peaceful mode of expression. 
The lowest animals are entirely destitute of 
r utter a wild and monotonous cry. 
Man alOl mple and wonderful 

aism adapted to the utterance of articulate 
lang 

A 3m is not endowed with means for 

iriviij ance to the public voice. Not being 

I of the ballot-box as the organ of speech, 

th*- people are dumb. Their government being 

a monarchy, its voice is a harsh and unpleasant 

monotone. 

Governments, endowed with human attributes, 

hich give America her glory, have 

nism of speech fully developed. They 

endowed with the indispensable requisite to 

Dal ional humanity — the ballot. 



178 THE BODY POLITIC. 

"Under such a government is never witnessed 
a spectacle, very frequent under a despotism, of 

"citizens with terror dumb." 

While republican people have free access to the 
ballot-box, no threats nor violence can strike 
them dumb. 

Degraded nations without the ballot-box, and 
consequently voiceless, have yet some means re- 
maining of expressing their disapprobation erf 
those who trample them in the dust. They have 
it in their power to "bruise the heel" of despotic 
power with a mortal stroke. 

Naturalists say that the Serpent utters a hifll 

by passing air from its respiratory saca through 

a chink constructed in its throat. 

The chink through which the serpent hi- 
has no resemblance to the aperture of the ballot- 
box through which the public voice finds utter- 
ance. Men with serpentine propensities, with 
disposition to go prostrate in the dust, and eat 
that pulverulent substance for the gratification 
of Southern task-masters, endeavored by cun- 
ning and craftiness to cause the utterances of 
the ballot-box to sound like hisses of discours 
ment and disapprobation to loyal soldiers in 
their country's service, and plaudits of encour- 
agement to rebels in arms against the Republic 



HOW POPULAJR WILL BECOMES LAW. 179 

Their efforts were most desperate and most 
determined in the autumn of 1864. and never 
were labors more signally unavailing. The peo- 
ple never uttered through the ballot -box a purer, 
rounder, more sonorous voiee in favor of human 
hopes and human liberty than in that memora- 
ble Cliflie <>f the nation's hi>tory. 

Bach individual voiee consists of waves trans- 
mitted to the atmosphere by air driven from the 
lungs. Could the countless waves of sound, pro- 
dueed by thirty millions of free people, be gath- 
ered into one. it would agitate the earth's atmos- 
phere to its loftiest bight, and reverberate around 
the globe with its mighty volume of sonorous- 
It would be more sublime than the sound 
of many waters, and more harmonious than 
"harpers harping on their harps," as heard in 
-nly vi>ion. 

M '. -the voice of the people is 
the voice of God." Bays an amient and erroneous 
proverb. Not withstanding the irreverence of 
conceding to any number of men the attributes 
of Divinity, there are analogies between the 
e of God and the utterance of combined 
humanity. 

Th( of God is inaudible to mortal ears. 

The - 9t utterance of creation — " Let there 



180 THE BODY POLITIC. 

be light" — awakened no reverberation in tho 
silent valleys of this mundane sphere. 

Thus the voice of the people through the bal- 
lot-box is never heard; it is felt and seen. It is 
a still — not small — voice. It is sublime and 
mighty in the accomplishment of what "man 
proposes" and "God disposes." 

A voice of itself is of little moment, being sim- 
ply pulsations of the atmosphere. It gathers all 
its value in its effects. It must find incarnation 
in deeds, in material results, before it can claim 
recognition among real things. A voice that is 
uttered and dies away without effect is mere 

u Sound and fury, signifying nothing." 
That utterance at the ballot-box, which does 

not assume form and Shape in the laws and pol- 
icy of the nation, is as fruitless of practical effect 
as Napoleon's command to the "head of the 
army" when he lay dying in St. Helena. 

The voice of the people, as expressed at the 
ballot-box, unless it incarnate itself in written 
enactments, will have less effect upon mundane 
matters than the monotonous outcry of Bryant's 
" Water-fowls." as they utter their inquiring and 
answering " Cronk ! cronk!" from one end of 
their wedge-shaped battalions to the other. 

The will of the people will vanish, as evanes- 



HOW POPULAB WlU. BECOMES LAW. 181 

cent as the summer cloud, unless it ran enrobe 
:' in written statute-, and provide moans for 
its proper administration among num. 

The object of voting i> not to indulge a child- 
ish passion for power. Tim sum and Bubstance 
of the elective franchise, all it contains and all it 
means, is the selection of men to make ami exe- 
cute law- 

Jeremy Bentham says that law is an evil, be- 
cause it is a restraint upon liberty. He asserts, 
moreover, that law is. like medicine, only a choice 
of evils. 

According to this theory we choose men at the 

ballot-box to inflict the evil of legal enactment 

upon US, and make them our instruments in do- 

• I ig. The evil which men thus 

do, : vim; the wishes <>t' constituent 

sidered criminal, and the rewards re- 
a morally regarded adequate to all the 
violence and injury done to the moral sensi- 
bilit 

Whatever may he the apparent evil inflicted 
on the individual, in curtailing his liberty bo far 
a- may be done by wise and wholesome li 
there is in it incalculable good t<> society at 
large. What each one loses of hi- own personal 
liberty is more than counterbalanced by his 
share in the common stock ofsecur 



182 THE BODY POLITIC. 

The principal evil in the "Acts" of law-makers 
of which complaint may reasonably be mad-', fa 
their immense multiplication of works of legal 
learning, of which do living man has ever read 
the half. 

Happy ifl it for the people, thai these volu- 
minous enactments are usually so well founded 
on the principles of common sense, that a man 

who never read a law-hook- in hifl life may be an 

obedient subject ami a law-abiding citizen. 

In choosing representatives to make their 
laws. ]»rn]»ir simply bcIocI secretaries to write 
down their dictation. Legislators have no 
power to enact a binding law in opposition to 
the people's will. No caprice of the politician 
can prevail over the silent but irresistible influ- 
ence of public opinion. No legislation can escape 
that invincible power, that silent judgment of 
the people which corrects the mistakes of arbi- 
trary legislation. 

American citizens do not meet, and enact laws 
in mass conventions, as did the people in the 

early days of the Grecian ami Roman Republics, 
and yet they take more immediate and effective 
part in making their laws than if they were 
personally present. Were the people present 

in one immense concourse, the pressure and 
tumult would drown all utterance and repress 






nOW POPULAR WILL BECOMES LAW. 183 

all reason. The works of agriculture, of com- 
merce, and manufacture would remain undone 
while the people should indulge in the unpro- 
ductive wrangling of the legislative mob. 

Under the American Constitution we have a 
better way. While the citizen ia honestly em- 
d in his chosen calling, with all the dignity 
and independence of the sovereign that he is. he 
contributes his share to the formation of the 
public opinion which rules America. 

Shallow men sometimes ridicule congressional 

tying that they have no effect 

upon members; that the opinions of these astute 

politicians already formed; that they do 

not hear nor give attention to what is spoken. 

aid further throw contempt upon such 

a by the assertion that they are made 

"for Buncombe," and are intended "for home 

X i intelligent congressional or legislative ora- 
tor expects to move the politicians by whom he 
is immediately surrounded. lie little car* 
influence their minds or change their votes, for, 
- aid effect such a purpose, h< knows he 
would accomplish as small a result a- one who 
should expect to alter the direction of the ? 

by turning the weathercock, or moderate the 



184 THE BODY POLITIC. 

rigors of wintry weather by warming the bulb 
of his thermometer. 

The sensible and philosophical speech-maker 
in Congress addressee a greater and grander 
auditory than that which lounges, or reads, or 
writes in the desks around him. He speaks to 

hearers in farm-houses, in hamlets, and in cities. 
He directs bis voice to dwellers on granite hills, 
fertile plains, and golden valleys. He addn 

an audience not so fixed in error, nor so firmly 
grounded in the truth, that they can not he 
moved if sufficient motive is presented. He 
strives to move those by whose movement the 

earth is shaken--bcforc whose breath politicians 

fly as chaff before the wind. 

It is in vain for a statesman tO try to legislate 

the people along the path of progress more rap- 
idly than they can he conveyed by legitimate 
steps of national advancement. No law can 
elevate a nation to a high degree of refinement 
unless the people pass through the intervening 
steps. 

The lawgiver who makes a law before the 
people are prepared for it, is the father of the 
most miserable of all abortions — a "dead letter.*' 
He stands alone when he expected to be sur- 
rounded by a willing and applauding people. 

A friend of the freedmen, standing before two 



ll"W POPULAB WILL BECOMES LAW. 185 

thousand liberated slaves just from cotton-fields 
and rice-swamps, proposed three cheers for •• Lib- 
erty." He waved his hai and shouted, ••Hur- 
rah!" but not another voice beside his own was 
heard. Nothing daunted, he repeated, -Hur- 
rah!" and not a responsive sound was heard. 

rmined to see it through, he waved his hat 
and shouted a third ••Hurrah!" but the freed - 
men stood looking toward him, with their great 
white eyes, wondering what it all could mean. 
It then, tor the first time, occurred to the demon- 
strative friend of liberty that slavery wae 
cheerless and so drear a thing that its victims 
knew nothing of the meaning of a cheer. 

Abraham Lincoln long had it in Ins heart, 
and almost on his lips, to utter the grandest 
cheer for liberty ever made or heard among 
mankind — the "Proclamation of Emancipation." 
IK- waited till the people were in readiness to 

their shout with his. Many blamed him for 
delay, and called him -low; but, being well 

aware that his own solitary v old only 

luce mortification to himselfj and fail in the 

•y moral and political effect which he de- 

unplish, he waited till the voice of 

: •• like the sound of many waters, 

told him that the time had come. He then 

1 his hand and waved the Stars and Stripes 



186 THE BODY POLITIC. 

as the signal for the mightiest and gladdest 
shout for " Liberty'' that this world has ever 
heard. 

Never before have the people had so great and 
good a lawgiver as Abraham Lincoln, because 
never before in the history <>f governments has 
there been a ruler so honestly determined to do 
the people's will. He was one of the people, and 
knew well the drift of their purposes; neverthe- 
less he did not look into the depths of his own 
nature lor the inspiration of his plans, but rather 
to God and the people. 

These two are the •• powers that be*' in Amer- 
ica. The One by omniscience, and the other by 
instinct, knew Ahraham Lincoln to be the til 
instrument for accomplishing the purpOfiefl n 
sary in making perfect t ho system of American 
government. Kvents produeed SUCfa a conjunc- 
ture of k> man's extremity*' and "God's oppor- 
tunity," that the American executive had the 
duty conferred upon it, under the war power, of 
acting the part of legislative, and by proclama- 
tion, the most sublime utterance of law. took the 
initiative steps in the most important statutory 
enactment of the world's history. 

The people being the Moses, or actual law- 
maker, and their representatives only the Aarons 
or spokesmen, if the former are intelligent and 



HOW POPULAR WILT, BB0OMS8 LAW, 1ST 

virtuous, it is Dot necessary that the latter Bhould 

be pos s essed of great wisdom or extraordinary 

talent Eonesty of purpose in an American 

alator is for more valuable to the people, 

whom he serves, than brilliancy of parte, 

The majority of men Bitting in our local Legis 

laturesand our National Congress have not been 
mm of great learning, profound wisdom, or 

splendid talents; and yet our legislation has in 
the main been wise and useful. " Very small 
men get into office here," wrote a young man in 
the West to his father in the East, as an induce- 
ment to his emigration* All parts of the country 
arc much alike in their proclivity to intrust the 
duty station to the hands of men oi* mod- 

erate talents. Oxenstiern, the great Swedish 
statesman, said to his son. who was expressing 
his diffidence in undertaking a diplomatic mis- 
M You do not know, my son, witli how little 
wisdom men are governed/ 1 

People standing alar oft", and looking upon a 
career of successful statesmanship, are prone to 
regard the distinguished man of the hour with 
awe and veneration, amounting almost to adora- 
tion, forgetting that they are worshiping them- 
selves in another form, and that the statesman 
ithing wh'» bean not the [mage and impress 

of the people Who have made him. 



188 THE BODY POLITIC. 

Travelers on Alpine bights are often startled 
by gigantic specters, which appear before them 
amid the fogs and mists of that upper atmos- 
phere. The specters which amaze them are but 
their own images reflected and enlarged by the 
concave mirror of the sky. The popular amaze- 
ment at the figure and dimensions of a successful 
politician should be moderated by the thought 
that he owes all his greatness to his accurate 
reflection of the people's character and will. 

Men have been divided in their opinions at 
what 18 the true theory of legislation. Some 
have maintained that Utility should he the rule 

by which to tot the merits of a piece of legisla- 
tion. Others have said that it should he tried 

by the unvarying and andeviating plummet of 
right And truth. Really the controversy has m»t 
much more practical importance than that winch 

divided parties in Liliput, where the Big-endians 

broke their eggs at the large extremity, and the 
Small-endians avowed it as their policy to break 
them at the smaller end. 

The great object is to break through the shell of 
formalities and restrictions, and reach that sub- 
stance most wholesome and healthful to a free 
state — wise and judicious legislation. Whether 
this is reached through the instrumentality of 
utility, or eternal right, matters not, for man cam 



How POPULAB WILL BB00ME8 LAW. 189 

not, and God wiU not Beparate those twain. 
However they may Beem for the moment to 
point in different directions, when temporary dis- 
turbing causes arc removed they will be found 
pointing toward the Bame steady and eternal 
Mar. 

Ancient nations were unskilled in the theory 
and practice of Legislation. Sometimes they were 
like children, utterly inexperienced and unin- 
formed, and wholly distrusting themselves, gave 
the w«>rk of law-making into the hands of a sin- 
gle wise or mighty man — as Moses, Solon, or 
LycurgUS. Again, with the assurance and self- 
confidence of youth, they have claimed the right 

iO do and Bay in their own persons all that \v;i> 

asary in the work of legislation, as in the 
ee dem< of early Greece and Komc. 

They evidently regarded legislation as some- 
thing of small importance, and only to be in- 
dulged in as pastime in the intervals of war. 
The annals Of ancient nations give the history 

of conquests with the utmost minuteness, and 
over the labors of legislation in almost utter 
nee. 

Modern nations have the honor of inventing 
the art of legislating by representatives. 

England and the United State- have carried 
the theory and practice of legislation to the 



190 THE BODY POLITIC. 

highest perfection. All other nations have fallen 
far behind them in their progress toward the 
attainment of that great source of national safety, 
happiness, and power — wise and honest l< 
lation. 

No nation has made so many political ex- 
periments as France. She has tried her hand 

at every form of government, and has tested the 
merits of every mode of Legislation. During the 
Consulate and Empire the French had an assem- 
bly — Corps Legistatif — consisting of 300 persons, 

who were the most passive and tongue-tied com- 
pany of law-makers that ever came together. 
They were not permitted to introduce or discuss a 

hill. It devolved upon the Tribunate to pro] 
all measures, and bo discuss them before the 
legislative body. This was a mere machine 

in motion and wrought upon by outside engi- 
neers. The members were permitted to vote apon 

the passage of laws, hut this was all. As dumb 
puppets, they simply performed the motions 
communicated to them. Their votes were always 
in accordance with the wishes of their masters. 
Sufficient opposition was always allowed, to keep 
up a false appearance of fairness, and to flatter 
the people with the delusion that liherty still 
survived. England or America would not toler- 
ate a mode of making laws by which the legis- 



SOW POPUfcAB WILL BBOOMES LAW. 191 

lative body should vote, but make neither speech 

nor motion toward the enactment pf a law. In 
these nations, the mass of power in the govern- 
ment is vested in the legislature. With them 
Parliament or Congress is the fountain-head of 
rnment, whence divergent streams of wise 
enactment tl<>w to gladden and beautify the 
lands. Without the primary promulgations of 
Parliament and Congivss. the Executive and Ju- 
diciary would sit idly on the chair, the woolsack', 
or the bench, powerless to perform useful duties 
for the state. 

Our forefathers brought the seed of their legis- 
lative system from England. The germ planted 
in Anurican soil, to which it was well adapted, 
grew more thriftily, and produced a grander and 
more beautiful tree than that of England. 

The upper house of English Parliament con- 
sists of the nobles and bishops, while the lower 
house is composed of members selected from the 
younger nobility and gentry of the kingdom. 

The colonic^ imitated the mother country in 
their houses of ''Delegates," "Burgesses/ 1 and 
"Assemblies," and finally in the "Congress of the 
United State-. - ' Colonial legislation was very 
imperfect and infantile in it> character. 

The Continental Congress was the creature of 
sal emergency, and accomplished a magnifi- 



192 THE BODY POLITIC. 

cent purpose in our national life. It was a most 
remarkable combination of contrasts and contra- 
rieties. While it held in its hands the most ex- 
traordinary powers with which a legislative body 
ever was endowed, it tottered along with cer- 
tain points of weakness in its frame ami constitu- 
tion which cause us to wonder that it ever go1 
through the long and weary yean of revolution. 

While wielding the war power, ami being the 

fountain of executive ami judicial administra- 
tion to the new nation, it was unable to control 
the yery sinews of war. The Continental Con- 
gress had no power to raise money without the 
consent of the Colonies. Any one of the thirteen 

communities, which formed the confederation, 
had the power to stay the progress of revolution, 

and cause Congress to sit as powerless as a crowd 
of school-hoys. Happily the war pressure kept 
the colonies together. The doctrine which good 
Benjamin Franklin quietly and acutely taught 
them, that if they did not "hang together" they 
would surely "hang separately." caused them to 
stand closely under the legislative canopy of the 
Continental Congress until the storm of war was 
over. 

When peace happily returned, and with it 
came liberty, purchased by sword and sacrifice, 
each of the colonies felt an inclination t<< 



HOAY POPULAR WILL BBOQMXfl LAW. 193 

wn separate and Individual way, and enjoy 
the fruits of victory. 

Since the old articles of confederation were 
inadequate to Mud the Btatei into one great na- 
tion, with common interests and common destiny, 
a wise and good desire arose in the hearts of our 
fathers "to form a more perfect union.'" 

A convention of delegates from all the states 
assembled in 1787, which formed the Federal 
Constitution. The most important creation of 
this Constitution was the Congress of the United 
States, substantially as it exists to-day. 

This repository of cur legislative power con- 
Senate and House of Representatives. 
Theorists in statesmanship have been divided on 
the question, whether two houses or one are 

rk of Inflation for 

eernment The question is Bettled by the 

at i« »n^. 

We have noticed how the French, most Bolf- 
sacrii rod philanthropic of nations, have 

made many expensive experiments in testing 
various political principles. As men go to 

tudy the Btyle and texture of worn- 
out garments or antiquated armor, bo persons, 
euri< 'In' character ami \\<>riv 

to Prance, and 

never fail to find them. 

17 



194 THE BODY POLITIC. 

The French, full of fine theories for a govern- 
ment which should surpass all other.-, merged all 
their legislative powers in a single house, which 
proved so rash and wrong-headed as to cause the 
nation to go whirling away through anarchy 
toward despotism. 

The Americans, not so haBty afi the French, 
prefer to w think twice before they speak" in the 
form of legislative enactments. Every "bill" 

must have three readings in each legislative 
chamber, and find approval in the sight of Rep- 
resentatives and Senators, before it is "entitled 
an act '' possessing a form of Sufficient dignity 
to command respect and exact obedience. liven 

then it is liable to have its career cut short by 
the veto of the President, which pronounces 

death upon such legislative enactments as are 
deemed incapable of hecoming wise and useful 
laws. A bill so forlorn and unhappy as to meet 
Presidential disapproval has still a chance of 
u struggling into life." If Congressmen have 
sufficient regard for their hapless edict, which 
has been turned with disapproval from the door 
of the Executive mansion, they may give it a 
two-thirds vote, which entitles it to become v 
law without the approval of the President. 

With two houses to scrutinize the doings of 
one another, and so much slowness of motion 



BOW POPDLAB WILL BECOME8 LAW. 198 

and deliberation, there is little danger that «ro 
shall Buffer from ill-advised and hasty Legisla- 
tion. 

The people aiv unwilling to intrust their will 
in the hands of Representatives longer than two 

- without renewal The public is liable to 
a change of mind, and may need new Repre- 

atives to give expression to modified opin- 
henoe members of the lower house of 

— hol<l office for the term of two years. 

ice we have no nobility from which to form 

our upper house of Congress, it was a problem 

with the framers of the Constitution how it could 

instructed in such a way as to be somewhat 

the influence of those sudden 

d or impulse which sometimes 

'• the populace It seemed g 1 to them 

that Ek ihould be elected by the legisla- 

- of the states, and hold office for the term 

an. 
"Old men for counsel" is a sound political max- 
im, which was reduced partially to practice when 
it was provided that Representatives in Con 

Ive and Senators thirty yean of 
! must be ; how old they may 

itution does not declare. The only 
bility which can prevent any and ev< 
or thirtj old, frOD 



19G THE BODY POLITIC. 

to Congress, is the lack of votes adequate to his 
election. 

He who would know the details of our na- 
tional legislation should read the M Annals of 
( longreSB," consisting of many ponderous octavos 
of political wisdom and forensic eloquence. Jle 

should proceed from these to the Congressional 

Globe, a scries of volumes now grown so large, 
that he who should peruse them all would per- 
form a feat well-nigh as great as that of Captain 
Cook, the first circumnavigator of our mundane 
globe. 



now OUR WILL is CARRIED OUT, 1^7 



(Mr A PTEB XXL 

tmvi— Qu LLrncATioNs Required tN the 
Mw who Carries out National Will, 

The public Will may be wisely conceived, 

forcibly expressed, and plainly sot forth in 
statutory enactments, yet if it goes not forth 
into action, it never has practical existence. 

The people enact laws by representatives, 
ami execute them by an agenl whom they call 
rident, selected in view of certain real or 
i w-avy qualifications. 

e American Executive must be a sum, By 
provision politicians arc relieved of the 

tition which would ensue were this 

office open to the ambition of the softer sex. At 
the same time we arc deprived of those oppor- 
tunities for the display of gallantry which Bng- 
v. m they graceflilly yield to the 
mild sway of their i_ r "<>d lady sovereign, 
The President of the United States must be 
stural born oitiaen of the (Jnited Btatei 

d of our l • • itutiou to which we re- 
tfullj call the attention of his [mperial 



198 THE BODY POLITIC. 

Majesty of France, who has recently manifested 
much interest in the American Continent, and a 
decided disposition to help those who can not 
help themselves, in the choice of their rulers. 

A German magnate who should come to this 
country, with a Letter of introduction written by 
Napoleon himself, and apply for election, by the 
people's votes, as an American President, would 

receive more bullets than ballots; and. it he 
survived to tell the tale, would have a sad ac- 
count to gnrc of the incorrigible character of the 
Federal Constitution. 

r Fhe President must he a single man. It is not 

meant that he must he unblessed with a con- 
nubial consort. This erroneous interpretation 

doubtless influenced the u domestic policy*' of 
a recent unhappy occupant of the Kxecutive 
mansion, the melancholy (dose of whose polit- 
ical life may be due to his baying no "part- 
ner of his joys and sharer of his sorrows." The 
American people are' generally in favor of mat- 
rimony, and would rather have the -honors" 
of the White House done by the (proverbially) 
"beautiful and accomplished lady of the Presi- 
dent "than to have the Kxecutive mansion turned 
into a -Bachelor's nail."' 

To be more explicit, the executive power of 
the United States can be intrusted to but one 



BOW 01 "R WILL IS ( ARRIKT» OVT. 199 

• a time. Unity in the executive- office 

secures promptness decision, and farce in the 

administration. Two executive heads of the 

rnment would CtfUSC division and distrac- 

of counsels. If tlio men pos pooao d equal 

gehillS and similar talents the duplicate would 

he supernumerary, and serve only as a shadow 

- are the other's path. If the two pos- 

1 unequal genius and dissimilar talents, the 

shrewder man would be tilled with arrogance, 

and the dullard would be consumed with jeal- 

tesyi 

The old Roman Republic was ruled by two 

3 ils; and a most unhappy experience the 

pie had of it. By way of compromise, it 

each of the consuls should have 

• ii power in alternate month-. A< 

f ]Mi\vcr was transitory, he en- 

oiake the most of it. He walked 
Is in a purple robe, preceded by twelve 

ing handle- of rods and axe- as em- 
blems <>f authority. If any one was SO unfortu- 
to nit'.-i the monthly consul and his 

ae 1 In- was required to give way to him. 

iii- bead, and descend from hi- horse, if 

he happened to }»<• riding. If any one neglected 

exhibiti one of respect, the consul 

apply their rods, which lie v 



200 THE BODY POLITIC. 

did with so much zeal and execution, that many 
an ancient republican felt that he was paying 
dearly the penalty of his disrespect for consular 
dignity. It was often difficult to decide the ques- 
tion, which of the two should first hold the chief 
authority. It was sometimes made to depend on 
which had the most children, or. if the number 
was equal, whose wife was living. 

Although the Romans indulged in the lux- 
ury of electing two consuls at once, they found 
it to their interest to use but one at a time. 
These would have been Very expensive indul- 
gences had they required such salaries for their 
support as modern chief executives enjoy. Our 
sympathy with Roman tax-payers, amid the bur* 
dens of their dual consulate, is greatly modified 
by the authentic information that office-holders 
in Rome received no salaries! 

The Romans were determined in their policy 
of having a double consulate by the erroneous 
impression, that one executive being an evil. 
another should be chosen to neutralize his in 
fluenee. 

The office of consul in tho "Roman Republic 
became much diminished in importance through 
division of its powers. Finally, under the Em- 
pire, Caligula conferred the office upon his horse. 

The French, in making the experiments which 



HOW Ofll WILL IS CARRIED OUT. 201 

succeeded their Revolution, determining to profit 
by the experience of the Romans, and avoid 
their failure, chose three consuls instead of two. 

Unfortunately for the success of the experi- 
ment, one of the three persons chosen as consul 
was an exceedingly selfish individual, who after- 
ward figured quite largely in public affairs as one 
Napoleon Bonaparte. This triple consulate man- 
aged not only to perform executive duties for the 
French Republic, but contrived to do considera- 
ble of legislating on their own account. It was 
the privilege of the consuls to propose laws, of 
the tribunate to discuss them, and the Corps Leg- 
vote upon them. Bonaparte, being of 
an aspiring disposition, made tools of his two 
colleagues, and contrived to crowd the legisla- 
tive calendar with bills promotive of his own 
mal aggrandizement He had himself pro- 
claimed First Consul for life, with power of nam- 
ing hid successor, and at length, casting off all 
modesty and all restraint, the consulate ar- 
ranged and carried out a programme by which 
Napoleon became Emperor, and his associates 
Princes of the Empire. 

Combination gives strength for carrying out 
Schemed of corruption and intrigue, enabling an 
ambitious man cunningly to accomplish hid ends 
by means of confederates, and avoid responsibil- 



202 THE BODY POLITIC. 

ity for measures which have in view the building 
up of individual power and fortune. 

As republics are likely to become fashiona- 
ble, and a great many nations are thinking of 
" making over'' their old governments, or " mend- 
ing them with new <>ius. ' ><>me, in determining 
what mode of ^ovcnniuMit is best, may suppose 
the Romans and the French to have envd in 
not having executives enough. Let them be 
warned by the experience of an ancient people, 
who submitted to the 4 dominion of a number of 
rulers, who have some notoriety in history as 
'• Thirty Tyrant-." Not finding legitimate labors 
of Statesmanship to occupy their time, they gave 
attention to certain arts, neither ornamental and 
useful, one of which is treated of by IV Qoincey 
in his learned essay on •Murder a- a Fine Art.*' 
English etymology was a science entirely un- 
known in their day. which may account for their 
making the mistake of supposing 'executive" 
and ' ; executioner " to be synonymous words. 
These lamblike rulers were hospitably inclined, 
and thought to increase their popularity and 
diminish their enemies by giving u Tea Parties/' 
to which they invited alike friends and foes. 
The fragrant leaf of China, which "cheers but 
not intoxicates," was unknown in Europe at that 
time; hence, as the best they could do, they re- 



BOW OUB WILL IS eARUIKO Ol'T. L'!)! 1 ) 

gated their guests on ■ decoction of hemlock, 
which had the effect to cause thorn to go off 
into a quiet slumber, from which they have not 

awaked to this day. 

Some modern rulers have devoted their talents 
and their policy to the construction of highways, 
and other means of intercommunication, between 

various parts of their respective countries. It 
was the policy of the thirty tyrants to provide 
their subjects with tree and speedy transporta- 
tion to the Land of Shades. 

En a " multitude of counselors there is safety.*' 

hut in many consul*, many presidents, many 

any tyrants, there is danger. AVhen a 

- itself into the hands of numerous 

- ; will shortly need executors to ad- 

ieter upon it> effects, u>r its days are almost 

Iilll: 

In a dangerous crisis of the nation's history. 
when responsibility is heavy, the individual in- 
truded with executive power would gladly divide 
harden and place a portion of it on other 
shoulders. The nation, however, seems to take 
almost a cruel pleasure in standing off and see- 
ing how nicely the weight is poised on a Single 
man. Tle-y have a notion that the burden is 
r bome by a man when he knOWfl that all 

the world sees it on hi- shoulders, than would be 



204 THE BODY POLITIC. 

done could responsibility be passed from one to 
another by political legerdemain. 

A man, knowing himself alone to be accounta- 
ble to the people for the way in which executive 
duties arc discharged, will use more exertions to 
show himself equal to great emergencies than If 
it were possible to share with others the responsi- 
bility. 

There is somewhere to be seen a massive 
rock, so nicely poised upon a single point, that 
the hand of a man may cause it to vibrate, 
and yet the united strength of a thousand men 
■would scarcely avail to prostrate it upon the 
earth. The executive power of America, po 
upon a single point, readily yields to the light- 
est touch of the people; yet, ^«> admirably is it 
balanced, and so well defined is its place in 
the Constitution and the laws, that civil war 
and foreign intrigues are unavailing for its over- 
throw. 

In this country the responsibility of the exec- 
utive is very considerable, and yet is not so 
crushing as to deter a multitude of aspirants 
from offering themselves as candidates for the 
office. The salary, the immense patronage, and 
the honor pertaining to the office are supposed 
to compensate for all executive labors and re- 
sponsibilities. 



HCTW OUB WILL IS CARRIED OUT, 205 

While the President is held responsible for 
executive duties, he is not required to perform 

them all himself. He may call to his assistance 
statesmen of the best talent in the nation, who. 
'secretaries" ot' the various departments, 
divide the chief executive duties among them- 
selves. These in turn divide their labors among 
Subordinates and clerks. 

It" the President were required to divide his 
loaf as well as his labors among so many, it 
would need miraculous enlargement and multi- 
plication. As it is. the public bounty supplies 
- and fishes in such abundance, that the 
M multitude " is in UO danger of famishing in the 

art 

The sacrod Scripture says thai a nation is in 

:nl and pitiable condition when its king is a 

child. The Constitution has provided that this 

a ;t':l not be endangered by the indiscre- 

ntive juvenility. No One is eligible 
to the office of President under the age of thirty - 

We thankfully record the fact that no 

American ruler can die and leave us as a legacy 

t<. I aerate and beardless offspring. 

It is an uncomfortable condition for a partisan 

a minority'. IP- feels uneasy in such an 

and longs impatiently for that u tide in 



206 THE BODY POLITIC. 

the affairs of men" that may place him among a 
majority. 

A minority in a monarchy — which means that 
the king has not yet arrived at yean of di- 
tion — is an uncomfortable circumstance, which 
involves the entire population. In such an event 
there is a great struggle among ambitious noblefl 

for the regency or guardianship of the infant 
king, for the care of his person includes control 
of his patrimony — the people. 

When several natural-horn citizens of eligible 
age, who have become notorious in military life, 
or in the tortuous paths of politics, have been 
selected as candidates by Opposing part leS, and 
placed upon platforms whose "planks" are mere 

"Sound and ftiry, signifying nothing;'' 

when these opposing candidates have submit 
some time to the contemptuous gaze of all idle 
lookers-on, and have been so covered with the 
grime and slime of slander and abuse that their 
friends scarcely know them; and when the peo- 
ple have been thoroughly instructed by the 
public prints that each and all of the candidates 
are more worthy of the gallows than any other 
worldly elevation — when all these consumma- 
tions have been reached, the vast voting popula- 
tion go into the Presidential election. 



HOW OCT will is DARRTtD OUT. 207 

In a simultaneous movement, though not "with 

one accord," the nation goes to the ballot-box, 

( )iu- Btate can not -ay to another. " Tell me your 

ehoiCe, and then you shall know mine." All must 

show their hands between the rising of the sun 

and the going down thereof on the selt'-same 

inher day. There is no opportunity lor an 

tive piece of party machinery, after having 

answered a useful purpose in one state, to go to 

aimther Btate and drag the people through the 

Itical corruption. 

By a strange freak of self-distrust, which is 

ingrafted by the people into the Constitution, 

do oot permit themselves to vote directly 

:' the United States. The great 

am of the popular volition i> thought to be 
turbulenl much polluted by the soil 

which it has lowed, to make it Miitahle 

B man t<> BO ethereal ami Mihlime a place 

a> tl y of the United States. It must 

i thrbugh a *' College of Klect<>r>*' he fore 
ntly pare and classied to dome in 
with the person of -the foremost man of 
all this world. 91 

1* i by the intervention of so much 

:le- people and their eh 

that loei n«»i always bavi 

..ht. 'fin- man who 



208 THE BODY POLITIC. 

was riding most bravely on the highest waves of 
popular favor is substituted by somebody else in 
the secret channel of the electoral vote, and the 
people, standing by to see the grand emergence 
of their favorite, crowned with the umbrageous 
honors of the Presidency, are transfixed with 
blank amazement to see the glory given to an- 
other. 

In no instance in our politics have electors 
voted contrary to the instructions of the states 
by which they have been chosen, yet it has 
sometimes happened thai the majority in the 
"Electoral College" has not coincided with the 
majority of the people. 

The electoral votes having been counted in 
the presence of the Senate and Souse of Repre- 
sentatives, and the result having been duly an- 
nounced to the people, and to the recipient of the 
honor, on one blustering, windy day of March, 
in the presence of a great crowd in and about 
the east portico of the Capitol, the President 
takes the oath of office, swearing that he will 
"preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution 
of the United States." 

It is surmised by some that there have been 
occupants of presidential position who, amid the 
meanderings of a tortuous official life of four 
years, have sometimes had but an indistinct re- 



HOW OUR WILL IS TARRIED OUT. 209 

membrance of the (act and purport of the official 

oath. 

The ancient King Croesus was aware that he 
must die at last, and leave all his earthly grand- 
eur, yet ho found himself prone amid his royal 
pomp t<> be forgetful of the solemn fact. To for- 
tify this weak point in his memory, he selected 
a slave, whose duty it was made to approach 
him at frequent intervals, and say. "Monarch, 
thou art mortal ! " It would be well if our rulers 
would profit by this example, and employ a serv- 
ant to say to them with frequency and force, 
" President, thou has taken an oath [" 

We might borrow a useful custom from the 
Romans, if we have not already borrowed so 
ly that there is no prospect of our ever pay- 
accumulating debt. They had a n£ 

bring their chief executives not only to swear, 
"h their entry into office, faithfully to discharge 
it> duties, but also, on retiring from their posi- 

9, t'» make oath that they had honestly fulfilled 

responsibilities. The prospect of such an 

oath, standing full and square in the path of the 

sident, would present a mild solution of legal 

and moral Suasion which would prove a powerful 

ilc- discharge of distasteful duty. 
button made the executive power a 
reality, and not a mere abstraction, by constitu- 
te 



210 THE BODY POLITIC. 

ting the President commander-in-chief of the 
army and navy. As Aaron and Ilur, holding up 
the hands of Moses, caused the battle to go 
prosperously for the Israelites, so the army and 
the navy strengthen and uphold the hands of the 
President. It is a sword which is hidden in its 
scabbard in time of peace; but in war, wielded 
by an energetic arm and directed by an intelli- 
gent will, it deals blows with terrible effect. 
Few had an adequate idea of the tremendous 
power of an American President until war made 
bare the Executive arm. 

The latest and most effectual mode of U -st- 
ing the power of the American Kxecutive is as 
follows: First, exhaust the resources of brill- 
iant tropical imaginations, and the vocabulary 
of several million voluble tongues, in heaping 
scurrilous abuse upon a newly-clccted President; 
secondly, fire on the national flag, and set at 
defiance the laws of the "Federal despotism," 
fit out privateers to prey upon American com- 
merce, and raise armies to maintain the heresy 
of secession ; after all this, persons possessed of 
curiosity w r ill be placed in position to know the 
extent of executive power in the hands of an hon- 
est President. 

The power to "grant reprieves and pardons 
for offenses against the United States" is an at- 



HOW OUR WILL IS CARRIED OUT. 211 

tribute which present* the Executive in the most 
ple&eing aspect, as viewed from Southern lati- 
tudes. I. S rcithern rebels find our executive 

tailor skillful in the roust ruct ion of garments 
vtore efficient to hide criminality and shame 
than were the fig-leaf aprons of ancient time. 

There in a considerable amount of political 
drudgery which the people do not wish to be 
troubled with. They are unwilling to be called 
from their farms and workshops to elect in- 
cumbents of all "offices of trust and profit" un- 
der the American Government. There-are some 
offices for which they distrust their ability to 
9C worthy occupants. Wishing to save 

themselves trouble, they Bay to the President, 

• We h;t\ D you to the highest olliee within 

gift; if you are the man we have taken you 

I on are competent to act for us in the choice 

Of a vaat Dumber Of inferior officers, which we. 

neither time, inclination, nor ability to 
We give you the power tO make selec- 

- reserving to ourselves only the privilege 

of bringing 'outside pressure 1 to bear upon you. 

ami affixing the seal of senatorial confirmation 

to you commissions 

This "outside pressure/ 1 which is one of the 

1 rights of the people, is a compound 

made up of the printing-press and the. 



212 THE BODY POLITIC. 

"press-gang" which crowds about the door of 
the Executive mansion upon the accession of each 
new incumbent. 

Closely connected with the power of appoint- 
ment, is the right of removal, which ifl vested in 
the President. "He can create and he ean de- 
stroy." He alone lias the power to perform the 
sanguinary work of official decapitation. 

Official dignity conferred by the President is 
a "loose garment,'' borrowed tor temporary par- 
poses, which the lender is liable to demand at 
any time, thus leaving the unwilling individual 
to breast the storms of lite with no protection 
but the homespun garb appropriate to private 
station. 

It is not in the power of the President to un- 
make all the officers that his ••sign-manual" has 
created. In the Judges of the Supreme Court 
he is the father Of political posterity, which may 

survive many years after he has closed his offi- 
cial life. When he nominates the ( niet-Justiee 
he is creating an officer who may be called to 
preside in the Senate, when that body becomes 
a high Court of Impeachment, for the trial of 
the President himself, when accused by the 
House of Kepresentatives. 

Long occupancy of office is thought to unfit a 
man for the duties and demands of private sta- 



HOW OUR WILL IS CARRIED OUT. 213 

fcion, Hawthorne, an old place-holder, says. 
" While a man leans on the mighty arm of the 

republic, his own proper strength departs from 
him. lie loses the capability <>t' self-support. 
If he ] S8< 98C6 an unusual share of native energy, 
or the enervating magic of place do not operate 
too long upon him, his forfeited powers may be 
redeemable. The ejected officer — fortunate in 
the unkindly shove that sends him forth betimes 
t<> struggle amid a struggling world — may return 
to himself and become all that he has ever been. 
But this seldom happens. He usually keeps his 
ground just long enough for his own ruin, and is 
then thrust out, with sinews all unstrung, to tot- 
ter along the difficult foot-path of life as he best 
may.*' 

To avoid thus unfitting the occupant of the 
lidential chair for the duties of private life, 
and to prevent the retention of so much talent 
loo long from the great ocean of human activ- 
ities, where it is constantly needed, the people 
made a constitutional provision that the Presi- 
dent should hold office for the term of four years. 

An ili« gteal question, frequently discussed in 

lyceums, "Whether the hope of reward is a 
greater incentive than the fear of punishment," 
is generally decided in the affirmative, the peo- 
ple were onwilling to deprive their Presidents 



214 THE BODY POLITIC. 

of the motive to good conduct contained in a 
prospect of reelection. They, consequently, Bay 
to their chief public servant. "Do your duty 
well, and serve the country faithfully, and if we 
deem it to our interest so to do, we will give you 
a second term of office." 

This all sounds xcvy well, and throws a plea<- 
ant atmosphere of anticipation about the re- 
sponsible labors of official life. The bed! meant 
measures sometimes have an effect quite differ* 
cut from that which was intended!. Sometimes 
motives in the machinery of life do not cease in 
their effect! at the precise point where it was 

desired they should stop. Sometimes reelection 

is the seventh heaven toward which all the vir- 
tue, all the piety, and all the activity of the 
President seem to tend. Under such cireum- 
stances. all the appointments are distributed 
with wise reference to the influence of grate- 
fill recipients upon November yotes. 

People are prone to impute a selfish motive, 
whether it exists or not. When the President 
pardons traitors, restores confiscated estates, OF 
commissions rehels to public offices, people BUS- 
pect that he is making provision for another 
official term ! 

European nations (their rulers rather) have 
expressed fears (hopes they mean) that the 



HOW OUR WILL IS CARRIED OUT. 215 

American experiment of electing the Executive 
by popular vote would prove a failure. Their 
disordered imaginations have made the •• noise 
and contusion'' of popular elections intolera- 
ble to delicate sensibilities. They assort, with 
all the dogmatism of impracticable theorists, 
that our frequent changes and popular choice of 
rulers must be attended with extreme peril to 
the Government. It will be discovered, how- 
ever, by those who take the trouble to explore 
the dark -arrets whence European rulers gather 
their antiquated and cast-off political opinions, 
that their fears concerning the effect of our pop- 
ular elections have more reference to the danger 
of their awn governments than ours. 

Our experience during the past seventy-five 
yean induces us to suppose that the ballot-box 
IS at least as safe and reliable a dependence in 
procuring good rulers as the "accident of birth." 

No nation has ever been governed by a scries 
xteen rulers among whom have appeared so 
few exceptional characters as in the noble line of 
American Presidents. Washington and Lincoln, 
the two extremes, one the hero of our war of 
lution, and the other of our war of Regen- 
eration, stand forth as illustrious ornaments of 
human nature — men whose eompeera are not 
bund in any dynasty of history. Had our free 



216 THE BODY POLITIC. 

institutions developed no other men of historic 
greatness, the fact that these were American 
statesmen would make our nation illustrious in 
the annals of the world. Both born on Ameri- 
can soil, they never left their native shores, and 
never beheld the pomp and pride of European 
aristocracies. The characters of these great re- 
publican rulers were moulded among the people 
for whose benefit they lived. 

Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, the second 
Adams, and Jackson have scarcely a parallel 
for talent ami integrity among all the dynasties 
of Europe. The weake8f and worst among our 
Presidents would have been regarded as models 
of virtue, in any of the Old World dynasties. 

The English monarchy, in its long succession 
from the days of the Heptarchy to the present, 
makes a spectacle rather picturesque than beau- 
tiful. Alfred, the only one among them who 
wears the title "Great," was the noblest of Brit- 
ish kings. Elizabeth was the greatest, as Vic- 
toria is the best of English monarchs. Cromwell 
was the only man of genius among them, and he 
arose to his place, not by ancestral right, but by 
force of his own and the people's will. 

Henry VIII was morally a monster. His 
son Edward was a good boy, but a feeble king. 
Charles I was unscrupulous as a despot, and 



HOW OUH WILL TS CARRIED OUT. 217 

unskillful as a statesmen, possessing so little 
tact as to lose bis head in the execution of his 
selfish schemes. James 11 was so wicked, and 
withal BO weak, that his subjects, for a won- 
der, would endure him no longer, and called 
upon William of Orange, a good Dutchman, to 
come over and rule them. His reign was an 
improvement over anything the poor English 
had enjoyed for many years. His successors 
have, with few exceptions, been a motley crew of 
v-razy. idiotic, or wicked kings. It is a wonder 
that mortal subjects would so long endure such 
follies as the royal race has brought upon Eng- 
land. 

"There is scarcely an evil known to these 
countries," wrote Thomas Jefferson concerning 
European monarchies. " which may not be traced 
to their kings as its source. There is not a 
crowned head in Europe whose talents or merits 
would entitle him to be elected a vestryman by 
the people of any parish in America. No race 
of kings has ever presented above one man of 
common sense in twenty generations." 

Twenty-three years afterward the same illus- 
trioufl Democrat thus took off the crowned heads 
of Europe: -While in Europe I often amused 

If with Contemplating the characters of the 

then reigning sovereigns of Europe. L<»ui< X V 1 
19 



218 THE BODY POLITIC. 

was a fool of my own knowledge, and despite the 
answers made for him at his trial. The King 
of Spain was a fool, and of Naples the same. 
They passed their lives in hunting, and dis- 
patched two couriers a week, one thousand miles, 
to let each other know what game they had 
killed the preceding days. The King of Sardinia 
was a fool. All these were Bourbons. The Queen 
of Portugal or Braganza was an idiot by nature; 
and so was the King of Denmark. The King of 
Prussia, successor to the great Frederick, WM a 
mere boy in body as well as in mind. Gustavus 
of Sweden and Joseph of Austria were really 
crazy, and George of England, you know, was 
in a strait-jacket, And so endeth the book erf 
kings, from all of whom the Lord deliver us!" 

After seventy years of freedom under a nobler 
and more illustrious line of rulers, all true 
Americans are prepared to join him whose pen 
broke the festering link which bound us to the 
imbecile sovereigns of Europe, "to besiege the 
throne of Heaven with eternal prayers to extir- 
pate from creation this class of human lions, 
tigers, and mammoths, called kings !" 



HOW WE INTERPRET LAW. 219 



CHATTER XXII. 

Judiciary — How we Interpret our Laws. 

Wl have traced analogies between the Ameri- 
can Government and human nature. There is a 
point in which we reverently mark a high anal- 
ogy with the Divine. 

A perfect human government can have exist- 
ence only as a trinity. The legislative, execu- 
tive, and judicial elements interweave and com- 
bine their triple strands, to constitute the silken 
la of government which bind American 
hearts and minds in a happy unity of life and 
destiny. 

These three must exist in independent yet har- 
monious action, or liberty has no reality. When 
a single irresponsible power — whether consisting 
of one individual or of many — exercises legisla- 
tive, executive, and judicial powers, a pure and 
simple despotism must ensue. 

It is the great end of the Constitution properly 
to divide, adjust, and balance the powers of gov- 
ernment. After provision ihv the legislative and 
executive departments, had no mode been de- 
d for explaining and enforcing legal require- 



220 THE BODY POLITIC. 

ments, the political frame might have had most 
beautiful form and comeliness, yet it would have 
been in a state of suspended animation, and, for 
all practical purposes, would as well be dead. 

The legislative and executive departments 
having been created by the Constitution, it was 
made their duty to originate that branch of gov- 
ernment which should contain the judicial power. 
Tt was provided that this should be " vested in a 
Supreme Court, and such inferior courts as Con- 
gress might, from time to time, establish." 

This power, being separated and ordained, was 
designed to run throughout the career of the 
Republic parallel with the legislative authority. 
No expectation was conceived that it would ever 
be absorbed in desert sands, or diverted into de- 
vious channels. 

Although Congress was made the instrument 
in setting the judicial machinery in motion, it 
had no power to make its action cease. 

As in ancient mythology, Jupiter rose in do- 
minion above his fattier Saturn, so in the Ameri- 
can system the judicial power sits in judgment 
on legislative acts, and decides whether they are 
in conformity with the Constitution. 

It is not for the judicial power to decide 
whether a law is good or bad, and will have ef- 
fects prosperous or adverse. The only question 



nOW WE INTERPRET LAW. 221 

for the judiciary to determine is, whether a law 
is in conformity with the Constitution. This is 
the supreme law o£ the land, to which all depart- 
ments of the Government must yield obedience. 
(Co executive power, legislative act, or judicial 
decision is able to alter or annul its binding pre- 
cepts. The people alone have the right and 
power to change this law fundamental and su- 
preme. 

The Constitution can not be perfect, since it 
was made and adopted by imperfect people. It 
is important for the judiciary of the United 
Stat. defender of the Constitution," and 

the people as menders of the Constitution, to 
study well its meaning and its susceptibilities 
<>f improvement. 

The rulers should consider the Constitution a 
.;. DOt to be touched with hasty hands. 
It is our Baered ark. containing that which is 
precious to us. He who rudely puts forth 
kk hand to contravene its precepts should be 
smitten down by the people, notwithstanding his 
motives may be good ; for. while it is the will of 
the people, it is the law to the ruh rs, and is the 
narrow strait which separates between us and 
despotism There is no necessity that the people 
should feel an unreasonable awe of the Constitu- 
tion, fur it is their own will. With as much pro- 



222 THE BODY POLITIC. 

priety might a man be afraid of his own shadow. 
That idolatry which constructs an image of 
wood or stone, and bows down before it, is not 
more mischievous or wrong than the idolatry 
which makes a formula of words, and declaring 
it perfect and unalterable, bends before it the 
knee of thoughtless and abject obedience. 

Provision has been made for the amendment 
of the Constitution, giving the people means of 
improving our fundamental law, which should be 
frequently and wisely used. Happily for the 
stability of our Government, change of our Con- 
stitution is not a thing so light and easy that it 
may appear to a hare-brained politician in the 
visions of anight, and he carried by a hasty and 
unconsidered vote upon the morrow. 

An amendment to the Constitution, before it 
can be considered a candidate for existence, must 
have the approval of the people expressed in a 
two-thirds vote of Congress. Then, having put 
en its best form and appearance, it makes a tour 
through the states, that the people may have an 
opportunity to sec it in person, and express their 
approval or dislike. If three-fourths of the 
states give it their verdict of approval, it is reg- 
ularly "articled" in the Constitution, and exacts 
obedience as sincere and true as if it had formed 
one of the original Seven. 



HOW WE INTFRPRET LAW. 223 

Since tl nstitation great 

giuaa - n made in legal reform and in 

the science rnment. At that time we 

took a posit: _ atly in advance of all other 

We arc still in the lead, yet we have 
not advanced so rapidly as many of them have 
done. Having made one mighty stride in 1787, 
have been natiafied to remain almost 

tionary ever Bin 

It is the old hare and tortoise race. The hare 
runs with great rapidity for a short time, and 
then, over-confident in his speed, lies down to 
•rake in time to win the rare. 
The tort if ge o with slow and steady gait. 
and | piictly by his slumbering compet- 

itor, reaches the goal before him. The hare 
wakes up and ml - i eyen with wonder to rind 
•n in the race by a competitor so 
tempi 
Unless we are careful to have our Consti- 
tution keep pace with the prog 

- I - me day be surprised to see na- 
3 which we have long looked upon 
■ behind, leading us along tl me path 

rogreee. 
11 twevermucfa the Constitution may need im- 

'.t. the judiciary has no power to am 
it. The judges must take il i If they 



224 THE BODY POLITIC. 

wish to help in its amendment, they must put off 
the judge and assume the citizen. 

As judges, their duty is to expound and enforce 
the Constitution, and test all acts emanating 
from the law-making power by its true and easy 
rule. 

Their decision, "unconstitutional," is fatal 
to an ill-starred act of Congress, and giv. 
premature interment in the "tomb of "the Cap- 
diets." 

While it is true that the legislative and judi- 
cial departments of the Government are distinct, 
yet in a certain way the judges help to make the 
laws. Their decisions, on cases which conn- he- 
fore them, have all the force and effect of law 
upon the judgments of their successors. Jn some 
cases the "precedents" seem to have more weight 
with occupants of the bench than moral, cere- 
monial, and statutory law combined. The most 
important practical questions of the present day 
are by them put to a vote of antiquity, and de- 
cided by a majority of men whose names have 
faded out of history, and whose minds never 
grasped the alphabet of the great measures 
which now absorb society. Such judges are so 
much the slaves of precedent, that the most mo- 
mentous questions are finally and indubitably 
settled by a majority of one; and in cases of an 



HOW WE INTERPRET LAW. 225 

equal balance of decisions, they scarcely trust 
themselves to give the casting yote. 

The common law of England, adopted and 
continued in this country, is the work of judges, 
and not of legislators. Hundreds of years ago, 
lawyers adopted the practice of reporting the 
decisions of judges, and publishing them for the 
benefit of their contemporaries and successors. 
This work has gone on, through the assiduity 
of reporters, until now the volumes of English 
and Anu-rican law number many thousands. 
Forty years ago, the learned Chancellor Kent 
pronounced the multiplication of such books 
grievance," and another distinguished ex- 
pounder of the law declared it a ; - serious evil.' 1 
Truly, the Chancellor's "grievance" has grown 
greater, and the "evil" become so "serious" as 
to {furnish material lor jokes. 

Ihe poor searcher after legal light finds him- 
self groping amid the darkness of doubtful de- 
9, and bewildered amid a maze of laby- 
rinthine lore. 

Our neighbors who speak other tongues are 

a- badly 0flf as we. Nearly a hundred years 

ago, a French author, in his M Lettres sur la Pro- 

m d'Avocat" published a catalogue of ■■>«•- 

ks for a lawyer's library," which he 

ted "the most useful to possess and un- 



226 TIIE BODY POLITIC. 

derstand." This catalogue embraced two thou- 
sand volumes, many of which were ponderous 
folios ! 

The newspapers recently announced that a 
young American of respectable family and dis- 
tinguished ancestry had gone to Paris to study 
law. It is to be hoped that his friends will in- 
terpose to save him, before he is utterly swal- 
lowed up and overwhelmed in the tremendous 
vortex. 

One of the legal reforms which has recently 
attracted the attention of philanthropists is that 
of putting a limit to judicial legislation, in the 
multiplication of voluminous reports, and con- 
fining courts more closely to the statutes which 
emanate from legislative bodies. 

Our Federal Judiciary consists of an "Ascend- 
ing Series," beginning with United States Com- 
missioner, continuing in District and Associate 
Justices, and culminating in the " Chief-Justice 
of the United States. " 

The jurisdiction of United States Courts ex- 
tends to cases arising under the Constitution, 
treaties with foreign powers, and laws of the 
United States. Controversies between states 
come up for decision before the same tribunals. 
By this arrangement we avoid recourse to war, 
which is the supreme court to which independ- 



HOW Wl INTERPRET LAW. % 1'1 1 

ent states most frequently resort for settling their 
disputes. 

When the nations of the earth become as 
sweet-spirited and as happily governed as they 
shall be in a certain "good time coming," there 
will be a Supreme Court kept up by the confed- 
erated governments of the world to settle na- 
tional disputes. When that time, so long de- 
ferred, shall come, the military art, now so 
necessary to be known, shall be thrown aside as 
a useless study; in better words, " men shall 
learn war no more." 

The states in their early histoiy being "in 
limited circumstances," and many of them badly 
involved in debt, like individual debtors they 
had a horror of being sued, and a reasonable 
fear that, if their cases were capable of coming 
before ban of justice, they could not "keep the 
wolf from the door." Hence they fortified them- 
selves by making an early amendment to the 
Constitution, providing that suits shall not be 
"commenced or prosecuted against one of the 
United States by citizens of another state." The 
consequence was that poor plaintiffs in search 
of justice, and debts due them at the hands of 
states, were dismissed from the courts without 
redn 

They had no recourse save "the last argument 



228 THE BODY POLITIC. 

of kings." But if tho defendant states were 
weak, the plaintiff individuals were weaker, and 
an appeal to arms by them would have been 
as bootless as Don Quixote's campaign against 
windmills. 

It is provided that judges of the Federal Courts 
shall hold office " during good behavior." The 
standard of "behavior" is not generally so high 
for the maintenance of honor in public office as 
is required for the retention of respectability in 
private station. Courtesy and custom often pre- 
fix the title "honorable" to the names of men 
whose individual and personal resources in the 
way of honor are very limited. The flattering 
title of "your excellency" is sometimes addressed 
to men who excel only in arts and practices which 
moralists do not approve. 

Such being courtesy and custom in their bear- 
ings on public men, an office held "during good 
behavior" is usually retained till death. The 
bands w r hich unite the judge to his position are 
more difficult to be sundered than matrimonial 
ties. Faithfully, and from his heart, he promises 
his place to hold and keep it "till death does 
them part." 

Many serious and truthful words might be said 
m favor of a limited tenure of judicial office. It 
is a well-known phenomenon of human nature, 



HOW WE INTERPRET LAW. 220 

that men greatly advanced in years are last to 
perceive and slowest to admit that mental infirm- 
ity has come upon them. A man who has sat 
an ordinary lifetime on the judicial bench has 
grown to feel himself almost an inseparable part 
thereof. He finds, the older he grows, his seat 
more comfortable and his emoluments more con- 
venient, and fails to perceive the propriety of 
his spending the evening of his days in private 
life. 

Our recent national crisis came upon us, most 
unfortunately, when the nation was under the 
dominion of an imbecile President and a Chief- 
Justiee in the dotage which is the necessary 
attendant on the close of a life of nearly a hun- 
dred years. 

The aire of seventy years, being the period put 
to human life by Divine economy, should be 
made the constitutional terminus of judicial 
office. The years subsequent to three-score and 
ten. if Heaven graciously prolongs the life, should 
(acred to preparation for the Great Tribunal. 
Some judicial functionaries have rendered de- 
cisions so atrocioufl and corrupt that they should 
K>me time Ibf repentance, and Pilate-like 
ablutions, or it will go hard with them at the 
bar of Him by whom judges are adjudged. 



230 THE BODY TOLITIC. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

From Jerusalem to Jericho — Scenes from our 
Quadrennial Elections. 

No highway has more unhappy associations 
than the road from the ancient capital of the 
Jews to the famous City of Palm-trees, whose 
Avails once suffered so severely from the blasts of 
Hebraic rams'-horns. This road is perhaps not 
so celebrated for its natural features, although 
these are sufficiently rough and unattractive, as 
for the lawless characters that once infested its 
rocks and caves. To these the unprotected trav- 
eler paid compulsory tribute, without being al- 
lowed the benefit of conscientious scruples con- 
cerning the propriety of the payment. 

Our country periodically passes through an 
ordeal which resembles the journey made cele- 
brated in sacred history. Once in four years 
the perilous journey must be made. The na- 
tion scarcely recovers from the wounds and 
bruises of one expedition before she must go 
forth again to expose herself to the pains and 
perils of a journey to Jericho. 

Being a conspicuous personage, none of her 



OUR QUADRENNIAL ELECTIONS. 231 

acta can be private. It is impossible for her to 
go out on the most limited tour of travel, without 
creating as much sensation as ever attended a 

royal pro grosa Her journeys down to Jericho 
being made at regular intervals, all who desire 
to reap from them pecuniary or political profit 
have ample time to lay their plane and make 
their preparations. 

Those who doubt the capacity of their own 
personal and private hands to hold as much spoil 
as their necessities demand, organize a band of 
followers, who are pledged to promote, by every 
| asible means, the interests of their chief. There 
are always a large number of these petty chiefs, 
each one of whom is desperately resolved to out- 
wit all others and appropriate the spoil to him- 
and his follower-. 

It is to the interest of these rival chiefs that 
the poor victim of their scheming should not be 
killed outright, for thus these skillful architects 
of their own fortune- would commit the folly of 
the unwise woman of ancient times, who killed 
the hen that laid the golden egg. 

When there is such a number of rival chief- 

a each bent on seeming the utmost p<>v<n,] L > 

plunder for himself, without some compromise or 

understanding the unhappy victim would fall a 

U) immediate death. To prevent this mel- 



232 THE BODY POLITIC. 

ancholy consequence, and to secure a continu- 
ance of their source of livelihood, a compromise 
is made. All who have expectation of securing 
spoil for themselves or for their friends assemble 
in "convention." Every chief, who sees but lit- 
tle chance of securing the lion's share for him- 
self, subordinates his claims to those of some 
other leader, who, in consideration of this devo- 
tion to his interests, makes large promises, con- 
tingent upon the undoubted success of the great 
marauding expedition upon which the factions 
are united. 

The "campaign" is now opened. A great 
deal of time, which had been better spent ill idle- 
ness, is occupied by persons who possess tongues 
of infinite volubility in "darkening counsel by 
words without wisdom." A great amount of 
sparkling eloquence is brewed, which close inspec- 
tion proves to be only froth. A great amount 
of muscle is employed in ungraceful gesticula- 
tion — directing attention to the stars, and point- 
ing to East, West, North, and South — which 
would be used to better purpose in beating an- 
vils or hoeing corn. A great deal of breath is 
expended, which, according to an ancient prov- 
erb, should be saved to reduce the temperature of 
"broth." Persons who thus bestow their breath 
have hope that the wind of oratory, having 



OIK QUADRENNIAL ELECTIONS. 233 

swelled the sails of their favorite candidate, may 
return after all to perform the above-named do- 
mestic service for them. 

The day at length arrives when the long-an- 
tieipated journey to Jerieho is made. An escort 
of servants and officials of various rank accom- 
pany the august personage on her "progress." 
They go ostensibly as a guard, but seldom fail 
to have their share of plunder before they aban- 
don their "places of trust and profit" near the 
body politic. 

The nation never fails to fall into the hands of 
one or another of the parties which beset her 
path. They do not advance upon their victim 
with the stealthy tread of a midnight robber. 
With -loud shouting and tumultuous din, the 
leaders and their subordinates urge on their 
Straggling followers. Partisan badges are con- 
spicuously displayed. Banners are borne before 
them, inscribed with appropriate mottoes, con- 
spicuous among which should be seen that com- 
prehensive maxim which so truthfully expresses 
the great principle which underlies political 
parties: " To the victors belong the 8pails" 

There is no necessity for minute description of 

scenes pertaining to the great event which 

gives to rvi-vy fourth year its importance in our 

political history. Victory is at length declared 

20 * 



234 THE BODY POLITIC. 

in favor of one or the other faction. The smoke 
of battle disappears, and the din of conflict dies 
away. Since it is almost a bloodless victory, 
those who took part in the conflict on the suc- 
cessful side survive to claim a share in the booty. 

The quarters of the successful chieftain suffer 
siege. He gets no rest, day nor night, until he 
makes distribution of the spoil in accordance 
with the merits of his friends. The few to whom 
have been assigned the larger and more splendid 
prizes go away with well-marked lines of satis- 
faction radiating their faces. Many depart with 
a style of speech upon their lips which is pro- 
verbially described as rather deep than loud. No 
booty can be so boundless, even though a great 
government is the victim, as to satisfy the de- 
mands of a rapacious multitude, every one of 
whom has cravings which extend beyond the 
boundaries of the possible. 

Twenty -five or thirty years ago, the Govern- 
ment had a revenue so large that she paid all her 
debts, and possessed a surplus of several millions 
of dollars, which she kindly distributed among 
the several states. Her generosity proved well- 
nigh fatal to herself. Persons with evil hearts 
and hands corrupt saw this evidence of wealth, 
and resolved to turn it to their own advantage. 

Since that time the country has seldom been 



OUR QUADRENNIAL ELECTIONS. 235 

permitted to travel unmolested. Kind and con- 
siderate public servants haw formed a system 

of relays along her route, and have always man- 
ifested great willingness to relieve her of her 
hardens. As gold and silver are particularly 
cumbersome baggage, and exceedingly difficult of 
transportation in large quantities, these zealous 
servant* have manifested the utmost alacrity to 
lend their aid in lightening the burden. They 
have sometimes carried their disinterested patri- 
otism so far as to relieve the country wholly and 
finally of all care concerning this troublesome 
luggage. 

By a serio-comic use of the w T ord "plunder," it 
tmetimes made synonymous with baggage. 
The enterprising emigrant carries his "plunder"' 
in his wagon, and the honest traveler describe? 
the contents of his valise by the same ambigu- 
ous term. Those who use this phraseology 
would not for a moment submit to the insinu- 
ation that they became possessed of their effects 
by other than the most lawful and honorable 
means. 

The facility with which baggage; could he 
transformed to 'plunder," in the early and inSO- 
cinv -tat.- of BOCietjr, may have first suggested 

the interchangeable nee of the terms. The dis- 
play of a deadly weapon, the brief Mimmons to 



! 36 THE BODY POLITIC. 

"deliver," and the small muscular movement 
involved in the passage of a purse from honest 
to dishonest hands, comprehended all the cere- 
mony necessary to effect the important change. 
That which but an hour ago was the honcM 
traveler's baggage may now bo "plunder" in 
the hands of the bold highwayman. 

There is no property of the Government com- 
mitted to the hands of public servants for safe- 
keeping which might not, without inaccuracy in 
the use of terms, be denominated u plunder." In 
this light it is regarded by many who aspire to 
positions of '• trust and profit.' 1 Thus it might 
be truthfully designated by the statistieian in 
his inventories of our national effects. 

There are some actors in the scene who have 
not been noticed. They sustain the parts of 
priests and Levites. They see the poor body 
politic lying bruised and mangled by the way- 
side; yet, from their aversion to mingling in 
politics, they studiously pass by on the other 
Side. They hear none of the piteous groans, nor 
do they see the ghastly wounds of the bleeding 
country. 

They keep their religion and politics as care- 
fully and widely apart as possible. Their arith- 
metic has a ' : rule of alligation " by which they 
arrive at the result that a mixture of politics and 



OUR QUADRENNIAL EUOTION& 237 

: gion has not nearly BO much value, in worldly 
markets, as cither of these "simples" taken sep- 
arately. 

Many men will submit to hear pious teachings 
00 Sunday, who would be unwilling to have an 
element so unaccommodating and unpopular 
mingled with their daily business. 

When a church-going Congressman sits in his 
pew on Sunday, calmly calculating his chances 
at the next election, his attention is unpleasantly 
distracted, and his calculations disarranged, if 
anything is obtrusively said, in the pulpit, con- 
cerning the immorality of political sins. If he did 
not always contrive to have a Lethean stream — a 
river of forget fulness — flow between Sunday and 
Monday, his equanimity would be disturbed, to 
the serious injury of his patriotic plans for the 
rnment of the country. 

The practical effects of such preachings are 
seen m>t 90 much in the lives of the hearers as 
in the living of the honest preacher. He soon 
discovers considerable subtractions from the 
scanty sum which constitutes his livelihood. He 
finds, on computation, that he pays a larger sum 

for hi- freedom of speech than for all other social 
and political privileges. 
This unhappy example causes some of the 
prudent of the "priests snd Levites" to 



238 THE BODY POLITIC. 

make a large detour, when, in the direct prosecu- 
tion of duty, they could not fail to see and re- 
mark upon the crippled condition of the body 
politic. 

Other characters sometimes make their ap- 
pearance in the scene. "Good Samaritans" 
often pass that way. whose humane efforts and 
kind contributions do much to prolong life and 
restore health to the miserable victims of ra- 
pacity. 

The Sanitary and the Christian Commissions 
have been the Good Samaritans of the evil times 
on which the country has lately fallen. They 
have administered physical comforts to the body, 
and at the same time presented spiritual conso- 
lation to the soul. Their heavenly ministrations 
give us more cheerful views of humanity, and 
lead us to hope that the journey -from Jerusa- 
lem to Jericho" may erelong be relieved of its 
rough features, and become a safe and pleasant 
route. 



THE PUBLIC MIND IS EDUCATED. 239 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
How the Public Mind is Educated. 

The English nation in its infancy was a rude. 
unlettered race, devoted to the battle and the 
chase, haying more taste for bows and arrows 
than for books. 

The Anglo-Saxons emigrating to England, like 

cT O O 

all early settlers, found much rough work to do. 
The Celtic owners of the soil were to be de- 
stroyed or driven away; the Picfts and Scut-, in 
the north, were to be held in check; that part of 
their sustenance which could not be procured 

from the chase niu>t be extracted from the cold 

and - round, by plows of sharpened limbs 

of trees, or other rude and unhandy imple- 

The consequence was that our unhappy an- 
rfl had little time for the perusal of books, 
had they been posseted of such intellectual 
treasures. 

About OSS thousand year- ago, Alfred became 

Kingo England. He carried to the throne a 
marvelous amount <>f learning for that time. 
When Alfred was a boy, his excellent step-mother 



240 THE BODY POLITIC. 

became possessed of an illuminated book, which 
she promised as a present to that one of the 
royal family who would first learn to read. 
Alfred's larger and older brothers found this 
literary eminence too difficult and dizzy, and 
abandoned the effort in despair. He persevered, 
and before he became king had actually learned 
to read. 

Alfred became a distinguished patron of learn- 
ing. He established a school where boys might 
learn to read, which was kept by a pious monk 
on the river Thames, near a place where cat- 
tle were accustomed to ford the stream, hence 
known in after time as Oxford. This school, 
having enlarged its buildings, increased its num- 
ber of teachers, and extended its course of study, 
is now known as Oxford University, a fountain- 
head of learning for England and the world. 

The monks, however, managed for many hun- 
dred years to keep most of the learning to 
themselves, locked up in the Greek and Latin 
languages, and consequently inaccessible to the 
masses of the people. 

The mists and fogs of the dark ages clearing 
away, and the light of reformation dawning, 
learning was gradually diffused. The early part 
of the seventeenth century found the middle 
classes of England not very learned, yet liber- 



THK PUBLIC MINI) IS EDUCATED. 241 

ated from the mental thralldom which had bound 
tlioir lathers, witting to do that most difficult of 
all labors, think tor themselves, and withal pos- 
led of a lllOSl ardent thirst for knowledge. 
A few of these, becoming founders of the 
northern colonies ( >t' America, brought with 
them all their newly -gained intellectual liberty 
and love of learning. They had no sooner 
erected temporary lodgings for their families, 
than they proceeded to build permanent and 
beautiful buildings for the education of their 
children. 

3 n after the settlement of the New England 

dies, the foundation of a University was laid 
at Cambridge which enjoys the distinction of 
being the chief seat of learning in America. 
This institution W>n located in the colony of 
Massachusetts May. and yet it received the fos- 
tering regard of the neighboring communities. 
The records of Plymouth Colony contain much 

i of the esteem in which the new college 
was held by the people, albeit they were not 
fully initiated into the mysteries of the modern 
spelling-book. --To support and tncurrage that 

nur>ary of learning att llarvcrd Colledge. in 
Cambridge in New England, from whence have 

through the blessings <>f Grod issued many 
worthy ami vseftdl persons for publiquc service 

21 



242 THE BODY POLITIC. 

in Church and Commonwealth," it was voted 
that "the Minnesters and Elders in each Towne 
stir up theire severall townes to contribute vnto 
this worthy work, be it in money or other guod 

The physical was made subordinate to the in- 
tellectual by the worthy Puritans, who deter- 
mined that the very means of securing bodily 
food should be subservient to the mental aliment 
of the community. It was "ordered by the Court 
that the charge of the free schools shall >e defrayed 
out of the proffitts arising by the ftishing att the 
Cape." 

The different sections of the country having 
been settled by separate and independent com- 
panies, there was no general system of education 
among the colonies. The progress of the differ- 
ent colonics in learning and intelligence was 
various and unequal. 

Since the establishment of the Federal Union, 
the subject of education has been wholly given 
over by the General Government to the local 
legislatures. The several states have made very 
dissimilar progress in their provisions and appli- 
ances for the instruction of their people. Some 
states possess a universally diffused intelligence, 
while others have a population most unhappy in 
their ignorance. The world does not present 



TllK PUBLIC MINI) IS EDUCATED. 24') 

two localities, under the same govern mein, of 
more remarkable contrast in education, and con- 
sequently in every other element of progress, 
than Arkansas and New England. 

Now, that the suicidal doctrine of States- 
rights has received a staggering blow at the 
hands of its own adherents, and bids fair soon 
to follow the example of error, and "die amid 
its worshipers." a system of universal education 
should be adopted by the General Government. 
Measures should be taken by which facilities for 
education shall be afforded free to all within the 
territorial limits of the United States. 

The grant of public lands for school purposes, 
made by Congress to the states on their ad- 
mission to the Union, was a great step in the 
right direction. Ohio, first-born daughter of the 
Union, had a birthday present bestowed upon 
her of a section of land in every township for 
purposes of education. States subsequently ad- 
mitted have been treated with equal liberality. 

A -till more enlarged and elevated view of 
public interests induced Congress to give to Ohio, 
and other States SS they successively passed the 
year- of' their minority, extensive tracts of the 
public domain for the establishment of colleges. 

In the midst «<t' the ingratitude and rebellion 
of tie- South. Congress generously and wisely 



244 THE BODY POLITIC. 

resolved to distribute among the states that 
would aecept the gift, many millions of acres 
of public land for the establishment of agricul- 
tural college-. 

As always happens among children who re- 
ceive estates by heritage or gift from parents, 
there has been great variety in the uses made of 
their princely patrimony. Some have wasted 
their inheritance upon inefficient officers and 
greedy speculators, while a few have husbanded 
their grand resources, and now have a vast fund 
and a princely income with which to compass 
the glorious ends of universal education. 

The recent grant of lands for agricultural col- 
leges has been accepted by only a few of the 
states. Judging from the past, we must infer 
that many of the states will make little use of 
this magnificent gift, and, instead of wisel\ 
curing it for the benefit of all future gencrat ions, 
will allow it to be eaten up by the spoiled chil- 
dren of the present. 

The General Government should take the 
cause of education more immediately into its 
own hands, and not do its work as now, in many 
instances, through the medium of distant and 
dilatory states. 

There should be established in Washington a 
Department of Education, the head of which 



THE PUBLIC MIND IS EDUCATED. 245 

should be a member of the Cabinet, with a voice 
in the executive council of the nation. This 
great national interest, which has not even a 
"bureau" in one of the offices of Government, 
should be elevated to the rank in national ailairs 
which its importance demands. 

The bequest of a princely sum to the United 
States, by John Smithson, of England, for the 
establishment of an u Institution for the diffusion 
of useful knowledge among men," is an evidence 
that foreign philanthropists regard the American 
Government as a reliable almoner of intellectual 
bounties for the world, and is but a faint fore- 
shadowing of the important trusts which would 
be confided to our national hands if we were 
ready to receive them. 

This department should have control of the 
great national schools for the education of boI- 
diers and seamen. The important influence ex- 
erted by these institutions, in the recent war, 
should cause us to control them in such a man- 
ner that they shall become the sources of strength 
to the body politic, rather than nurseries of state 
pride and hotbeds of rebellion. 

In requiring a certain amount of education as 
a qualification for the voter, the Government 
would go far toward making intelligence uni- 

■al in the land. However illiterate might 



24G THE BODY POLITIC. 

be the foreign emigrant, he would be unwilling 
to turn his progeny out upon society disfran- 
chised by their ignorance. This provision would 
secure the advantages of universal education, 
without the enactment of a law that every child 
should attend school a certain number of years. 
Our sons would as naturally pass through the 
instruction necessary to secure the suffrage quali- 
fication, as now they live through the years pre- 
ceding the age of twenty-one. 



OUR GOOD HERITAGE. 247 



CHAPTER XXV. 

The American Language — Our Good Herit- 
age, and How we Use it. 

Having a robust body and a good mind, noth- 
ing less than a great language is adequate to our 
wants. A mighty nation with a feeble tongue 
is like a full-grown man with the lisp and stam- 
mer of a child. Good laws, great commercial 
transactions, and glorious military achievements 
demand the medium of a strong and copious 
language. The languages of some of the great 
nations of antiquity are the marvels of modern 
tim< 

Its speech is the garb in which a nation lives 
at home and appears abroad, and if inadequate 
to national necessities, it makes the wearer ri- 
diculous. When a language is built up by a 
nation, it is a true exponent of the character of 
its creator. When it is the heritage of a people, 
it has a great influence upon the nation's char- 
acter and career, 

The American people are the inheritors of a 
language made perfect for them by their fathers. 
They found it in admirable working order, well 



248 THE BODY POLITIC. 

adapted to their wants. Its rough combinations 
had been harmonized by the labor of innumera- 
ble brains, which have long lain thoughtless 
among the clods. It was "licked into shape" by 
unnumbered tongues long silent in the dust. 

The Declaration of Independence, the first 
utterance of our national life, was made in an 
impressive style of speech which no subsequent 
study and effort have been able to surpass. 

The Anglo-American language is beyond all 
others adapted to the wants of a great and a free 
people. Being the result of a union of Anglo- 
Saxon and rsorinan-Kreneli.it lias many synony- 
mous words. There is scarcely an object or an 
idea which may not find expression on the 
American tongue by two different and equally 
expressive words. Our very speech, giving to us 
constantly the power of choice, is perpetually 
repeating to us the lesson of our liberty. 

"E Pluribus Unum, v our national motto, gives 
a complete history of our language. "E Pluri- 
bus" — "from many" — the Latin, the Greek, the 
Celtic, the Danish, the Saxon, the French, the 
English, — it is "Unum" — one — the Anglo-Amer- 
ican. All civilized nations have contributed to 
the construction of the beautiful garb of Ameri- 
can ideas, and yet it is not mere patchwork. 

The combination forms a whole as beautiful 



OUR GOOD HERITAGE. L> 19 

and perfect as the creation of an artist's taste. 
[tfi unity is as marked and as perfect as the 
shaft of Bunker Hill. It is the loftiest, most 
deeply laid, most majestic monument of the hu- 
man mind. 

Notwithstanding the vastness of their terri- 
the American people everywhere speak the 
same language, To one escaping from the dia- 
lects which swarm about Ids ears in a petty prin- 
cipality of Europe, the sameness of speech as 
spoken from Maine to California must appear 
most marvelous. An English word may travel 
to the cabin of the Western hunter, or to the 
utmo-t reach of American commerce, without 
g any of its orthographical proportions or 
_rht of meai dug. 

The American language is more nearly than 
all others a universal tongue. It is spoken on 
- a. and is echoed by every shore. An 
American can -caively be cast on a shore so des- 
olate and uncultivated that his words will not 
fall upon understanding ears. To the old Eng- 
lish question, "Who reads an American book?*' 

it may now he answered. •• Kverybody." and that 
omniprc-.'nt personage hBfl taken pains to learn 
the language^ that he may enjoy the privilege. 

It tar fortune than wealt h or noble 

birth 'Hi to the inheritance of Mich a Ian- 



250 THE BODY POLITIC 

guage as our mother tongue. It enables us to 
give full utterance to our thoughts in the ears of 
the only free people on earth. It enables us to 
address heart-moving motives to the only men on 
earth who dare to allow words to have their full 
influence. 

He who can marshal English words and phi;; 
in such a way as to capture the human mind, 
either by stratagem or by storm, has greater 
power than the barbaric despot whose commands 
are carried out by armies of obedient slaves. 

The English language presents to him whose 
moth or tongue it is, a more valuable material for 
intellectual labors than the ancient artist had in 
quarries of Parian marble. In this material 
Shakspeare and Milton wrought, and reared their 
monuments. There are many languages widely 
spoken in the world, in which it would be as 
fruitless to attempt to create a great intellectual 
work as to build enduring pyramids of Nile mud 
or frost-work. 

Happy is the man who thinks his thoughts 
and speaks his words in the English tongue. 
Happy is he who can read Shakspeare, and Mil- 
ton, and King James' Bible without translation. 
Wretched is he who must plod through foreign 
grammars, and wear out ponderous dictionaries, 
which he never fully masters, that he may gain 



OUR GOOD HERITAGE. 2f)l 

a smattering of English. Thrice wretched is he 
who toils through a tedious lifetime without 
knowing a word of the American language. 

The only mitigation of his misery is that he 
knows not it> extent. Like the man who gropes 
through a cave of diamonds in the dark, he lives 
and dies without knowing the existence of the 
treasures he has failed to appropriate and pos- 

Our language has been the medium of great 
intellectual power and influence. Thoughts are 
enshrined therein which will have authority in 
remotest ages. 

The American language is the most effective 
medium of political power in the world. A 
speech in Congress on some momentous question 
of the times has an audience of millions. In no 
other language than ours would the Proclama- 
tion of Emancipation have thrilled the world 
with so deep an interest. 

Grammatical and rhetorical accuracy is char- 
acteristic of our nation. Writers of English 
undefiled are universally read in America, and 
acknowledged as authority in modes of ex- 
Every >chool-l>oy knows where to 
find the law and the testimony in all matters of 

orthography, pronunciation, and definition. 

We are correct in our speech, from the fact that 



252 THE BODY POLITIC. 

we are so much a traveling people. No Ameri- 
can imagines 

11 The visual line that girds him round, the world's extreme." 

Every one has traveled to other portions of the 
country, and has conversed with people who 
have their habitation outside his native vale. 
The native of New England, of Pennsylvania. 
and North Carolina have moved West, and set- 
tled on adjoining farms. If one carries with him 
a provincialism in his speech, the good-humored 
laugh of his neighbors soon dissipates it, and the 
language of the pioneer neighborhood becomes 
classically pure. 

The little curious provincialisms which arise 
from obscure fountains are lost in the great ag- 
gregate of pure speech. The ocean is the re- 
ceptacle of impurities from every shore, but its 
agitation by tides and storms gives the mighty 
mass its purity and grandeur. 

The moral character of a nation may be de- 
termined by listening to its speech. Out of its 
own mouth must a nation as well as an indi- 
vidual be judged. 

One of our faults in speech, which in its incipi- 
ency is ridiculous, bnt in its progress and perfec- 
tion becomes immoral, is our tendency to exag- 
geration. We appear to our visitors from abroad 



OT'K GOOD HKRITAOE. 253 

as a nation of boasters. Wo grow hyperbolical 

on tho smallest provocation. All our emotions 
ire "overwhelming." Our scenery is "Splendid," 
-• magnificent." -awful." Our Origin is M wonder- 
ful," our progress "sublime." our future l *gk>ri- 
ous." Our birth was an -era.'* our history is an 
"epic:" our end. if it ever comes, will be the 
greatest "tragedy" ever perforated. We are the 
greatest commercial, intellectual, and military 
nation on the globe. We could vanquish all Eu- 
rope, perhaps the combined world, on the field 
of battle. 

All parts of our country are not equally given 
tO boasting, In this art the South has always 
led Some of the exaggerations of South- 
ern people have led them into most unhappy 

.juenccs. it wia asserted by ardent de- 
claimed that "one Southern man could whip 
live Yank* « The people of the North were 

either too bu>y or too taciturn to refute the false- 
hood, and so its perpetrators began to consider 
it unimpearhably true. They founded all their 

arithmetic on it, and made their preparations for 

war OD this basis. Every Southerner who en- 

I under the rebel flag imagined himself an- 
other (roliath of (iath. commissioned to defy the 

cowardly armies of the North. 

I i ry &6bool b«>y has read tie* story of the 



254 THE BODY POLITIC. 

unhappy man who wrecked his fortunes and his 
mind by making the little numerical mistake of 
saying, " Once one is two." This refrain was on 
his tongue through all his future life : "Once one 
is two;" "once one i» two." When corrected, 
he would seem to collect his shattered thoughts 
and say, "Ah! right; once one is one." and then 
his unsphcred mind would revert to its old error, 
and continue to repeat, "Once one is two." 

The South lost its political and material wealth 
by making the foolish mistake of computing "one 
equal to five." This little mistake on the South- 
ern slate has been wiped out in blood. The 
erring accountant has learned a lesson, and will 
henceforth work by a better rule. 

Our language is not trivial nor low; it is ele- 
vated and dignified in its character, as is natural 
from its origin with the earnest and solemn Sax- 
ons. It is appropriate and adapted to the uses 
and purposes of every-day life, from its use by 
the most practical nation on earth. It is pure, 
it is chaste, it is religious; otherwise it could 
not have crossed the Atlantic with Puritans and 
Quakers. It possesses, what some languages 
have not, words with which to name the Deity, 
describe his attributes, and define the doctrines 
of his Word. 

We have words by which he who studies to be 



oru good heritage. 25S 

vile may give expression to thoughts vulgar and 
profane. Such words are ill at ease ; they are 
not at home among us. They mar the harmony 
of English periods. They can not Well flow in 
the current of smooth and quiet thought. They 
only appear amid the turbulence ot^ passion. A 
Frenchman can make his profanity coalesce with 
his speech so smoothly that one hardly notices 
its presence. He swears with his politest bow; 
he swears in the midst of his gayest humor. He 
wreathes his oath with smiles, and utters it with 
such affability that the heedless hearer scarcely 
thinks that it needs apology. 

On the other hand, the circumstances under 
which an American uses an oath make it ab- 
horrent to the taste as well as the moral sensi- 
bility. It is rarely used save as the vehicle of 
his anger or impatience. It is the impotent 
attempt of a passionate man to do by word what 
he can not or dare not do in deed. In this un- 
couth manner he 'eases his mind," or "does 
justice to a subject." When the profane man 
has made the moral and mental atmosphere 
murky with his oaths, and pauses to take breath, 
he perceive* that his furious language 4 has not 
changed the physical relations of anything about 
him. He bafl not made one hair white or black. 

We have never beard of any physical effi 



256 THE BODY POLITIC. 

produced by profanity, unless we credit the 
averment of mule-drivers in military service. 
They affirm (if a term so mild and Quakerlike 
can be predicated of men who constantly swear.) 
that their obdurate and stubborn beaatfl abso- 
lutely refused to extract loaded wagon* from 
Southern mud until the drivers began to curse. 
According to these authorities, profanity is the 
only language which these animals can compre- 
hend. It is no flattery to men who use such 
language, that their habitual speech is not above 
the level of hrute comprehension. 

These poor beasts arc grossly slandered by 
tbO0Q who aver thai they have any liking for BOCfa 

language. If the statements of their drivers are 

true, (hey only prove the tact that the taste and 
disposition of the poor animals induced them to 
do all they could to put an end to their prox- 
imity to persons who indulged in such wicked 
speech. It was hard that the strength of har- 
ness and weight of load oiten prevented the ac- 
complishment of their laudable desires. 

Those wdio declare that mules have any sym- 
pathy with men profane do injustice to the brute 
creation, as did those who reported to an Amer- 
ican General that one of his subordinate officers 
had been "beastly drunk." In his order dis- 
missing the otfender from the service, the Gen- 



OUR GOOD HERITAGE. 257 

oral vindicated the honor of slandered animals, 
by Baying that "beasts never get drunk." 

Some who have denied the doctrine of a hell 
as a place for the future punishment of the 
wicked, confess themselves convinced by the 
Southern rebellion that such a place is necessary, 
and does certainly exist, or the universe is sadly 
incomplete. This life, they think, is inadequate 
for the just punishment of such sinners, and 
there is no place suitable for their consignment 
in the life to come, save the place revealed in 
Scripture as prepared for the first rebels, "the 
devil and his angels." 

It is to be feared that some have concluded 
that there is a tise for profane language in its 
application to the character and crimes of rebels. 
They think that the unparalleled wickedness 
and folly of these miscreants will justify the 
moat opprobrious and profane epithets that can 
be heaped upon them. It must be admitted that 
there is temptation to intemperate language in 
the vain attempt to describe such unparalleled 
crimes. They have Overleaped all the barriers 
which divine and human law reared against 
wickedness. This, however. gives do license for 
breach of morals or propriety by those whose 

minds are well disposed. 

The angel, irbose office as God's especial mes- 



258 THE BODY POLITIC. 

senger would have given him right to the utter- 
ance of fiercest denunciations, set limits to his 
speech, on a most trying occasion, when he 
brought no '-railing accusation" against Satan, 
but left him in the hands of God for judgment 
and condemnation. Satan's servants and imi- 
tators may safely be left to the pains and penal- 
ties provided by human and divine laws, both 
of which they have trampled under foot. 

There is danger of our becoming a nation 
of oath-makers, and consequently of oath-break- 
ers. He who asseverates by the Supreme Being 
on every trivial occasion can have little rever- 
ence for His Dame when used in courts of justice. 
Frequent perjury is a natural result of wide- 
spread profanity. It is not more important to 
ask a witness whether he believes in God, before 
administering an oath, than whether he habitu- 
ally uses His name profanely. The testimony 
of a profane swearer should have little weight 
when it is at variance with the evidence of one 
who has due reverence for God. 

The public conscience and the public taste 
should combine to save our Anglo-American 
tongue from corruption. Melancholy would be 
our condition, should increasing profanity not 
speedily be stayed. All classes and ages would 
soon be infected by the deadly virus. We should 



DUB GOOD EKRITA0K. 259 

be shocked everywhere by sounds most harsh 
and discordant. Thechild would lisp profanity, 
and the man of age would litter blasphemies 
against the Being in whose presence he must 
shortly stand. Such untimely sinning would in- 
dicate a depravity of the public heart almost be- 
yond the reach of remedy. 



260 THE BODY POLITIC. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

The Public Piety — Difference between a Re- 
ligious State and a State Religion. 

Man has been called a religious animal, yet 
in some of his phases many of the lower orders 
of creation are quite as worthy of commendation 
for piety as himself. 

Man has high motives to religions life, sinco 
ho has an immortal soul derived from GrOd, and 
bears in his breast a moral principle which all 
along the career of lite condemns or acquits, as 
a court subordinate to the Divine Bar, 

The Body Politic — the State — can have no re- 
ligion. It is the creation of man. and. like all 
his works, is finite. It moves in slow and stately 
march through the centuries toward the end of 
its existence;, and possessing a mortal soul, it 
can have no renewal of life beyond the shores 
of time. 

State religion is a mere idea, which can have 
no truthful and tangible existence. God should 
be recognized and honored in national constitu- 
tions; but this is merely an admission that men 
are not and can not be Atheists. 



PUBXJG PIETY. 801 

In Him nations "live and move and have 
their being," and they ran no more ignore His 
existence than they ean call in question the 

shining of the sun. or the presenee of the all- 
pervading atmosphere. 

The Bible must be the hasis of all eorreet leg- 
islation, since it embodies the first principles of 
jurisprudence. No human assembly ean legis- 
late into existence a principle of law which has 
not its origin in the Sacred Code. 

When rulers attempt to create religion for the 
state, they go beyond their province. They pro- 
duce a creation for which the nationality has no 
need, and in which it can take no interest. The 
leqnebce is that it dies as soon as born, and 
if nurtured at all, it is only a piece of coldness 
and corruption in ihe nation's arms. The living 
human being derives its first inspiration by gift 
of Heaven, and ever afterward, until the wheels 
of life stand still, the vital air comes and gOOfi of 
itfl own accord amid the pulmonary cells. The 
icn man. the mere machine, maybe inflated 
for S moment with fictitious breath; but it has 
no vitalizing effects, and can only be continued 
by tlie constant renewal of the external force. 
The state ifl but a constructive man. a piece of 
human machinery, and DO religion better than a 

form, a shadow, is adapted to it. The legis- 



2f)2 THE BODY POLITIC. 

lation which constructs the ropes and pulleys 
must supply the motive power. 

The English are so unhappy as to have a state 
religion. Like their monarchy, it is a mockery. 
The two go well together, as the one absurdity 
serves to bolster up the other. The establish- 
ment flourishes beneath the Bmiles of royalty, 
and the Church, by way of compensation, keeps 
monarchy in good repute, singing, in her sublime 
devotions, "God save the Queen," and praying 
most fervently, "God grant her in health and 
wealth long to live." 

The Church of England, being a parasite of 
the state, is not deep-rooted among the everlast- 
ing hills of God, but draws all its vitality from 
the political system from which it derives its 
origin. The establishment derives great reve- 
nue from its unhappy relation to the state, the 
only legitimate effect of which is to make the 
bishops immensely rich, and render the inferior 
clergy and the wretched people more abject. 

Formalism and Hypocrisy run riot in the es- 
tablished Church. The greater portion of Eng- 
lish piety has taken refuge among the n on -con- 
forming sects. The people groan under an op- 
pression which compels them to pay enormous 
taxes to support a non-resident and slothful 
clergy. After this if they would see the pastors 



PUBLIC PIETY. 263 

of their choice enjoy a meager livelihood, they 
must divide with them the scanty remainder in 
voluntary contributions. 

Americana have reason to be thankful that 
God in his mercy has saved them from two 
stupendous evils: the delusion of bowing down 
to dumb idols, and the burden of bearing a 
national Church. 

Happily for us, when the American Colonies 
were established, the policy of the English 
Church was to oppress Puritans, Catholics, and 
Quakers. The consequence was that these in- 
corrigible schismatics and sectaries brought with 
them no admiration for the established Church. 
They were in no danger of attempting any fee- 
ble imitations of English hierarchy in the Xcw 
World. The colonists announced the broad prin- 
ciple, without which civil liberty is a mockery, 
that no man should suffer disability as a citizen 
on account of his religious belief. 

So thoroughly was the American public mind 
luaded of the evils of a united Church and 
State that the first amendment made simultane- 
ously with the adoption of the Constitution pro- 
vided that "Congress shall make no law respect- 
ing an establishmenl of religion, or prohibiting 
the free se thereof.* 1 Thus our vasl terri- 

tory became a field tor the emulation of the re- 



264 THE BODY POLITIC. 

ligious sects and the exercise of their pious zeal. 
Happily the ambition to become an established 
Church can not exist among the aspirations 
and rivalries of the sects. A prize so blight- 
ing to the state and so fatal to the Churches 
does not exist among their possible tempta- 
tions. 

Honest and God-fearing rulers are inestimable 
blessings to the state. Their piety, however, 
should be the real outgrowth of a faith deeply 
rooted in their hearts, and their tenure of office 

the consequence of the people's choice. Hence 

it was wisely enacted in the Constitution that 

"No religions test shall are* be required :t < ;l 

qualification to any office or public trust under 
the United Stah 

To the hypocritical monarchies of the Old 
World, whose statutes are loaded with the ordi- 
nances of an effete formalism, we may appear to 
be an irreligious, an infidel people, and yet, des- 
titute as we are of legal enactments to enforce 
religion, we are. without hypocrisy, the most re- 
ligious nation on the globe. 

The American nation had its foundation in 
the aspirations of pure Christianity, seeking fvvc 
and full development. The early emigrants 
from England to America were not ambitious 
to extend the boundaries of the British Empire 



public riETY. 265 

They cared not to be able to boast that u the sun 
never sets on British dominions." 

They were desirous to extend the conquests 
of another kingdom — the kingdom of Christ. 
They did not embark, like the Spanish adventur- 
ers, to seek the gold of Mexico or Peru. They 
were content to find a place where they would 
gain but a scanty livelihood on earth, so that 
they might have an opportunity to lay up treas- 
ures in heaven. 

They built on the shores of the Xew World no 
baronial castles, no royal palaces; they reared a 
nobler and grander fabric — the glorious temple 
of American liberty, having for its firm and 
deep foundations the eternal principles of Chris- 
tianity. 

The Puritans of Xew England, the Catholics 
of Maryland, the Baptists of Ehode Island, and 
the Quakers of Pennsylvania had all suffered 
too much at the hands of a national Church to 
think of fastening such an incumbrance on the 
new settlements of America. They had sacrificed 
too much for conscience' sake, and for religion's 
Bake, not to make Christianity an essential ele- 
ment in their new institutions, 

Escaping the calamity of a state religion, wo 
i inherited from our fathers a religions state. 

In the dark hours of revolutionary trial we were 



266 THE BODY POLITIC. 

sustained by a "firm reliance on Almighty God."' 
Our fathers had faith in God. They well knew 
that vain would be. reliance on their limited 
resources and untrained militia against the va>t 
armaments and practiced soldiery of Bnrope, 
unless Divinity should "shape their ends." 

The Continental Congress, in whose hands 
were intrusted the highest and best destinies «t 
the human race, called upon God to direct their 
momentous deliberations. He guided them to 
the choice of Washington to be commander-in- 
chief. 

Faith in God and devotion to the cause of lib- 
erty did more for him and his country, than 
faith in his destiny and devotion to himself 
did for Napoleon Bonaparte and lor Kranre. 
Napoleon's maxim was. that God was on the 
side which had the heaviest battalions; but 
he outlived all his military sneers and impe- 
rial grandeur, and perished a miserable exile 
on an ocean rock. Washington believed that 
God was on the side of the few and the feeble, 
struggling faithfully for human rights. Ho 
brought to a triumphant close the most hop* 
and unequal struggle that the world has ever 
seen. He gave to the American people liberties 
unimpaired by his own ambition. By his exam- 
ple he made it high treason against humanity 



rt'BLIC PIETY. 267 

for one of his successors to abate a jot of our 
heritage of freedom. 

Since the days of Washington there have 
sometimes been men in authority among us 
who have "feared not God nor regarded man." 
Aaron Burr could plot the dismemberment of the 
Union, and the establishment of a Western Em- 
pire; Calhoun could deliberately and wickedly 
design the secession of the South, which he was 
too feeble to accomplish; Taney, our "atrocious 
Judge," could turn Justice aside from her high 
and holy course, and cause her garments to be 
defiled by prostration before the "sum of all vil- 
lainies;" Buchanan could wickedly and weakly 
sit in the executive chair, and see, without an ef- 
fort to prevent them, deeds of high-handed rob- 
bery and treason committed in the inner shrine 
of the Temple of Liberty; and yet we have not 
forfeited our claim to be regarded as a Christian 
nation. A succession of pure and good men has 
not been wanting in high places of official power. 
They have sometimes lifted ineffectual voices 
on the side of feeble minorities, yet they have, 
sooner or later, carried their points, for one good 
man. in a moral contest, having God on his side, 
U :i) the majority. 

This being a republic, in which the people rule, 
the temporary elevation of this or that politician 



268 THE BODY POLITIC. 

to place and power stamps no permanent moral 
or intellectual character upon the nation. The 
people — the vast masses in private life — the pop- 
ulation away from the hollowness, the corrup- 
tion, the vices of cities, who live in the free, pure, 
and beautiful country, give us our character as 
a Christian nation. The cities all have good 
men more than sufficient to save them from 
Sodom's unhappy fate; but to find a place where 
majorities are on the side of God and of truth, 
we must go among the agricultural population, 
where men live in the midst of God's creation — 

"Fur from the noisy world's ignoble strife.'' 

Were great cities like New York the exponents 
of our national character, our Government and 
institutions, with all their excellence, with all 
their happy realities and auspicious hopes, would 
long since have been swept away, [gnoranoo 
and ruffianism among the lower orders, mam- 
mon and licentiousness among the higher circles, 
would have sealed the ruin of our commercial me- 
tropolis, had not its destinies been firmly linked 
to those of the great, the intelligent, the moral 
Empire State. The healthy blood which rejuve- 
nates the moral and commercial enterprise of the 
great cities comes from the country. The sons 
of farmers and mechanics, who have been reared 



PUBLIC PIETY. 269 

in rural homes to virtuous and industrious hab- 
its, become the political and commercial loaders 
of the nation. 

While we remain an agricultural people, aud 
the majority of the people are brought in con- 
stant and immediate contact with God, in the 
country which He created, we shall retain our 
right to be known as a Christian nation. 



270 THE BODY POLITIC. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Intemperance — Our Unprofitable Part- 
nership. 

The inhabitants of a certain ancient city 
once had a most untimely and unwelcome rain. 
Liquid fire fell from heaven and swept away 
the devoted town, mak?ng of its site a bed in 
which the Dead Sea has lain near four thousand 
years. 

The liquid fire which threatens a deluge to 
our land is not brewed in the heavens, nor dis- 
tilled from the clouds, but is prepared by the 
wicked subversion of the gifts of nature from 
their proper uses, and the prostitution of their 
life-preserving properties to the work of death. 

Men of perverse minds and misdirected talents 
have given themselves to the manufacture and 
sale of intoxicating liquors, and, strange to say, 
have found the fiery flood of ruin to the land 
the high tide of fortune to themselves. 

Making a plea of restraining the traffic, under 
such circumstances as make it seem like a 
desire to participate in the profits of the trade, 
the body politic has made a partnership with it. 



OUR UNPROFITABLE PARTNERSHIP. 271 

For a stipulated sum the Government lends its 
countenance and protection to the traffic, thus 
forming a "league with hell and a covenant 
with Death." 

This partnership has been of no profit to the 
state. The pittance which has gone into the 
public treasury from the sale of licenses has 
been poor compensation for the wretchedness, 
the poverty, the death, which have fallen like a 
devouring plague upon the people. 

The revenue from licenses is not enough to 
keep in repair the machinery for the support of 
pauperism. In some of the states the money re- 
ceived for the sale of liquor licenses goes into 
the common-school fund and is applied to edu- 
cational purposes. This pious use of ill-gotten 
gains makes as poor amends for the iniquitous 
transaction as did the purchase of the Potter's 
field, with Judas Tscariots thirty pieces of sil- 
ver, for the bargain and sale of the Divine Re- 
deemer. 

Consigning a portion of her children to pov- 
erty and death, that another numerically insig- 
nificant proportion of her progeny may live in 
palacefl and fare sumptuously, is an exhibition of 

maternal weakness and partiality which makes 
a Berime impeachment against the judgment of 

our mother country. 



272 THE BODY POLITIC. 

The nation should listen to the sepulchral 
voices coming from the two million drunkards' 
graves which have been digged and filled in the 
United States in the last half century. "Hark ! 
from the Tombs" would be "a doleful sound/' 
calculated, if heard aright, to lead the nation 
to salutary reflection, profound repentance, and 
happy reformation. 

The evil genius which induced the infatuated 
Jews to cast their offspring into the lire, as a 
rifice to Moloch, has fallen in these latter days 
upon the American nation. She has east multi- 
tudes of her sons and daughters to feed the tires 
of intemperance. Many who have not yet per- 
ished in the ilaims aiv going about with the 
fatal tires kindled in their vitals. 

Post-mortem examinations of persona who 
have died from intemperance have revealed the 
fact that their blood has become so fully charged 
with alcohol that it burns like oil. Examples 
are not wanting of persons who have indulged 
in alcoholic drinks so long, that, the blood be- 
coming fully infused with inflammatory ingredi- 
ent, they have taken fire, and perished by spon- 
taneous combustion. 

If individual citizens, who form the vitalizing 
atoms of the body politic, should generally be- 
come infused with the spirituous elements, an 



OUR UNPROFITABLE PARTNERSHIP. L'To 

accidental spark of excitement might create an 

explosion which would rend the national frame- 
work to atoms, and saeritiee it as a luirnt-otlering 
on the altar of sin. 

The great work of Curing the nation of the 
ase of intemperanee was begun in 1836 by a 
few resolute men. who commenced the work of 
national reform in their own private characters. 
Having been inebriates, who had wasted wealth 
and health in devotion to strong drink, they 
knew the dire evils of intemperance, and re- 
solved to break effectually and forever the chains 
of evil habit. They formed the Washingtonian 
Society, and pledged themselves to abstain from 
everything that would intoxicate. They applied 
themselves with energy to the work of spreading 
the principles of total abstinence, and organiz- 
ing temperance societies. Within a few years 
their efforts were crowned with marked and sal- 
utary Lillet upon the nation. 

In 1851 the note of progress sounded still 
louder, and the friends of reform resolved to 
make a more decided advance. Legal protection 
and partnership was a stronghold in which the 
liquor traffic had intrenched itself. It was re- 
solved to drive its mercenaries from behind their 
intrenchmentSj and turn their guns sgainst 
themselves* A determined effort was made to 



274 



THE BODY POLITIC. 



enlist law on the side of Temperance Keform. 
The movement was begun in our frontier North- 
eastern state. Other portions of the country 
followed her example, and soon not less than 
twelve states had enacted stringent laws against 
the importation and sale of intoxicating liquors. 

In 1856 the enemies of reform gained a tem- 
porary victory in Maine, and expunged the 
prohibitory law from the statute-book; but the 
friends of progress rallied their forces, and 
hurled the votaries of intemperance from power. 

In some other states, where similar enactments 
had been made, the judicial ermine was tainted 
with corruption, and t he law. fraught with bless- 
ings for present and succeeding generations, 
was declared "unconstitutional." "Liquor" WM 
again allowed to inundate lands from which it 
had been restrained by legal barrier. 

Men whose names are appended to such dc 
ions will take rank among the infamous judges 
who have cursed mankind by their wicked and 
ill-advised "opinions." Most unhappy is a na- 
tion which is cursed by such mischievous men at 
the fountain-head of justice. In years to come, 
when civilization and Christianity shall exercise 
their benign influence over the hearts and minds 
of a majority of the human race, their names 
will only be remembered for the evil that they 



OUR UNPROFITABLE PARTNERSHIP. 2<0 

have done. It' they have done misehief for re- 
nown, like the infamous incendiary who tired the 
Temple of Diana at Ephesus, they may realize 
the unenviable fame they seek, and have their 
names spoken with curse* in centuries to come. 
The armies of slavery having been vanquished 
on the field of battle, the weapons of warfare 
should now be turned against intemperance, 
another "relic of barbarism." The soldiers of 
Reform, flushed with victory gained on other 
fields, may now turn their arms against this 
great national evil, with prospect of success. 



27G 



THE BODY POLITIC. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Our Fountain of Youth — How the Nation 
Eenews Her Strength. 

The substance of the human body is continu- 
ally changing. Old particles pass off and new 
substance is deposited, so that in course of seven 
years we inhabit new bodies. Unseen and si- 
lently the busy atoms come and go. Like the 
coral insect, which conducts its small and mighty 
labors in the bosom of the sea. their deeds are 
only divulged in their effects. The elastic step 
of youth retained through many years, the hand 
ever strong and skillful to perform the nicest re- 
quirements of the mind, the eve losing not its 
radiance until death conies with violent hand to 
put out the light of life — all show how careful 
are the lively atoms to relieve one another, and 
how readily they come up. each with its own 
freshness and vigor, to bear a part in the phys- 
ical labors of life. 

Similar changes take place in the body politic. 
Old and worn-out particles are removed, while 
new and vigorous units come in to supply the 
loss. In course of thirty years the whole sub- 



OUH FOUNTAIN or vofTir. 2i7 

stance of the state is changed, yet the constitu- 
tion and national identity remain. 

It is a wise providential arrangement in na- 
tional affairs, that when a man has acted his 
part and can be no longer useful to the state, a 
lymphatic is at hand to absorb him as waste and 
worn-out matter, lie glides away on the Lethean 
stream which bears on its bosom all the past. 

If by this arrangement a state loses the serv- 
of the good and wise, there is compensation 
in the fact that it is the process by which the 
patient people have always been relieved, sooner 
or later, of wicked tyrants and designing dema- 
gogues. Thus poor Naples, a few years since, 
in the course of nature, was relieved of her loath- 
some and ungodly "King Bomba." Any suc- 
r attempting to walk in his footsteps would 
require many years to compass all his crimes 
and descend to the same depths of political fcnd 
personal transgression. 

If new and healthful matter is not deposited 
ftfl dead substance is removed, the body politic 
becomes emaciated, loses its vigor, and soon dies. 
Iii America the reinforcement has always been 
greater than the lo>s: hence the Republic has 

enjoyed a healthy and vigorous growth. Ajb old 
statesmen and gray-haired citizens pa— away, 
youth arrive at manhood and hasten forward to 






278 THE BODY POLITIC. 

occupy the vacant places. Vitalized with new 
and energetic life, they come to prolong the 
vigor of the state. Patriotic citizens die, and 
the voices of great statesmen are hushed in the 
silence of the grave, yet the state knows no de- 
cline in wisdom nor in power. 

It is of vital importance that the fresh parti- 
cles of matter which enter into the frame-work 
of the body should be freighted with no insidi- 
ous disease. Melancholy would be our fate 
should malady and death enter by the avenues 
open to admit the messengers of life and health. 
Unhappy would be our cage if the reinforcing 
atoms, glowing with the hues of apparent health 
and happiness, should prove to be tinged with 
the baleful color of contagion and difesf 

Such would be our desperate condition should 
the youth of America become evil-minded and 
corrupt. Every such atom added to the body 
politic would only augment the mass of corrup- 
tion and disease. 

When Catiline resolved upon the subversion 
of the Eoman Republic, he commenced his work 
by attempting to corrupt the youth. By all 
means within his reach he infused the virus of 
immorality into their hearts and lives. By 
every manner of ingenious device he pandered 
to their baser passions. He sowed the seeds of 



OUR FOUNTAIN Off YOt'TlI. 279 

anarchy and ruin to the state in the susceptible 

Mil of youthful hearts, and it was only by the 
stupendous labors of Cicero and the patriotic 
people that the republic was able to defer, for a 
season, the labor of gathering the dreadful har- 
vest of desolation. 

Happily the American Republic can as yet sec 
no source of fear in the promise of her youthful 
sons and daughters. With a few exceptions, 
such as will always appear while human nature 
wears its present form, there exists in American 
youth an amiable willingness to be taught, and a 
readiness to walk in paths of wisdom. 

A- aged and experienced laborers grow weary 
in their country's service, and rest from their 
toils, recruits from the ranks of virtuous youth 
advance, with fresh and vigorous powers, to take 
in their hands the implements of honest industry. 
No lull in the hum of manufactures, no cessation 
in the bustle of commerce, marks the interval 
between successive generations. 

The American nation rejoices in a career of 
constant progress. Each generation adds its 
cumulative energies to those which achieved the 
successes of tho past. Each age is endowed with 
more muscle to accomplish the physical labors 
of the time, and with more mind to push further 
the domain of thought. 



280 THE BODY POLITIC. 

The American nation never need arrive at do- 
tage or decline. She has discovered means for 
the renewal and augmentation of her youthful 
energies more effectual than the fabled Fountain 
of Youth, which charmed with fallacious hope 
the adventurous spirits of Spanish cavaliers. 

Ponce de Leon bad grown old in the military 
service of the Spanish Crown when Columbus 
returned from that first grand voyage which 
revealed to Europe the existence of a new West- 
em World. His spirit glowed with desire for 
adventures in a new and more romantic field. 
Advancing age might have deterred him from 
undertaking the toils and perils attending a voy- 
age of discovery and conquest to the Western 

wilderness, had not his mind been infused with 
the pleasing fancy that there existed, some- 
where amid the green and flowery recesses of 
the West, a fountain which had the miraculous 
virtue of restoring the vigor and vivacity of 
youth to all so fortunate as to drink of its pel- 
lucid and ever-flowing waters. Ponce de Leon 
and other cavaliers of similar adventurous spirit 
landed on the shores of Florida and penetrated 
the flowery forests, but sought in vain to find 
that fountain from which should flow the elixir 
of life. Ponce de Leon and most of his cav- 
aliers fell victims to the arrows of the Indians. 



OUR FOUNTAIN Of YOUTH. 281 

the hardships of the march, and the diseases of 
the dime. A few returned to Europe, only to 
yield at last to that inevitable death which no 
earthly power could avert. 

The American Republic has discovered a 
Fountain of Youth more magical in its effects 
upon herself than would have been the waters 
Bought so ardently and vainly by Spanish cav- 
aliers. This fountain flows for her benefit alone, 
si nee it has no virtue for the renewal of indi- 
vidual life. Its waters flow from a million 
happy American homes, whence virtuous youth 
go forth to take useful stations in the land. 

This fountain springs not most purely amid 
the stone-paved streets and narrow lanes of 
crowded cities. It gushes most brightly and 
most copiously amid the hills and valleys of 
the grand and quiet country. 

Cities abound in great sins and resistless 
temptations, which sweep away and swallow up 
the greater portion of the youth. Their loss to 
themselves and their friends is irreparable, but 
to the nation it is more than made up by the 
virtuous and vigorous contributions of the coun- 
try. The youth of rural origin are those who 
to the highest places in the land. Away 
from crowded cities, in the rural district**, there 
temptation, more habits of industry early 
24 



282 THE BODY POLITIC. 

learned, higher appreciation of the fewer educa- 
tional advantages, and more deference to the 
authority of parents and teachers. Thus the 
fountain of mental and moral health is kept 
pure, and flows perpetually for the nation's 
benefit. 

Amid the crowded populations of great oil 
fathers are so filled with speculations to make 
fortunes, or labors to make livelihoods, and 
mothers so occupied with society, that they dc- 
vote but little time to the mental and moral 
interests of their children, who are permitted 
to grow up amid unlimited indulgence and 
unmitigated idleness. 

The sons and daughters of the country are 
taught to bear their part and proportion in 
domestic and farm labors. Division of labors 
and duties among the members of the household 
gives to all some hours of leisure, which may be 
devoted to domestic society, education, and re- 
ligion. 

The fountain of health and youthful vigor to 
the nation gushes forth in perennial brightness 
from free schools and Sunday-schools, which 
spread their genial influence over every hill- 
side and valley of the land. 

He who poisons the wells and springs at which 
the unsuspecting population drink, is not only a 



OUR FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH. 283 

murderer, but ft monster. A fountain designed 
to promote the nation's health and strength 
gushes on the banks of the Hudson, So pre- 
cious did its waters appear, that the nation de- 
voted large sums to promote its enlargement and 
secure its purity. It was collected in marble 
basins and flowed over golden sands. A stealthy 
foe crept in, and. "while men slept," cast poison 
into the pellucid waters. Its effect was not im- 
mediately visible ; the waters flowed apparently 
as pure as ever. In an hour of emergency, 
when the nation needed extraordinary vigor 
to meet a great crisis in her history, she turned 
to her favorite fountain, and would have drunk 
a fatal draught, had not her quick eye discov- 
ered that it was u casting up mire and dirt." 
With disgost she turned to the native springs 
which gnfth from the mountains of New Eng- 
land and the hill-sides of the West. 

By constant contributions from her well-or- 
dered families and schools, the body politic 
maintains its health and grows in strength. 
The nation asks of fathers and mothers the 
devotion Of their children to her service. It 

t demanded that all shall beoome states* 

men and politicians. The great majority may 

be more naefhl to the Mat<* in other fields of 

labor. 



284 THE BODY POLITIC. 

The devotemcnt which the nation asks is not 
a sacrifice such as Pagan Moloch demanded of 
his idolatrous worshipers. The children are not 
to be cast into the fire or be slain upon the altar. 
The Republic asks that they shall live and labor 
for their own highest interests, and in doing 
this they promote in the best manner the ad- 
vancement of the nation. 

Ancient mythology says that Saturn was ad- 
dicted to an unparental habit of devouring his 
children as soon as they were horn. Had not 
the mother, by B pardonable fraud, deceived the 
voracious and unnatural father, little Jupiter 
would have gone the way of his elder-horn 
brothers and sisters, and epitomised all the acts 
of his lite in ministering a meal to the parental 
stomach, instead of hurling thunderbolts from 
Mount Olympus, and doing other marvelous 
deeds. 

The American nation does not devour her 
children for her own personal gratification and 
their destruction. While she would have them 
contribute to her growth and strength, she de- 
sires that they shall retain their own identity, 
and long live to promote their own greatest 
personal good. It is the policy of a despotism 
to crush out the lives and hopes of the people, 
and consolidate them in one great mass, whose 



OUB FOTNTAIN OF YOUTH. 285 

only use is to increase the momentum of irre- 
sponsible power. 

Bempronia, the Soman matron, with just 
maternal pride, esteemed her children as her 
choicest jewelry. The nation numbers her stu- 
dious, intelligent, and virtuous youth among her 
brightest jewels. 

Foreign nations, who keep those expensive 
and useless pieces of ornamental furniture styled 
kings and queens, possess certain senseless bau- 
bles which they call "crown jewels." 

The children of America are the jewels which 
sparkle in her coronet, and manifest her true 
and royal sovereignty. They are her chief 
pledges of the power Bhe wields and the dignity 
she enjoys. They declare tliat when other na- 
tions, now enjoying an ephemeral power, have 
had their day and disappeared from the stage 
of national affairs. America will have only en- 
tered upon her heritage of perpetually-renewing 
v ruth fulness. 



286 THE BODY POLITIC. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

Nations are not Immortal, and States do 
Sometimes Die. 

Death is recognized in all the world as a 
crowned and sceptered king. None dispute his 
sway; none successfully resist his authority. 
The people fall obediently before him. and kings 
yield in silence to his decrees. 

Death has walked abroad without hinderaixv 
or restriction during all the past. Everywhere 
lie has crushed beneath his feet the delicate or- 
ganism of life. He' lias rudely shaken to the 
ground and trampled in the dust the leav< 
verdure and beauty which have adorned the 
world. Death has strewn the trophies of his 
triumphs so thickly that scarcely any portion of 
the earth's crust has not passed through his de- 
stroying hand. 

AVhile myriads of living things have passed 
away, leaving no trace of their existence, a few 
have left memorials of their lives. Some have 
written their autobiographies with footprints in 
the rocks. Although these are all the traces of 
existence which many extinct animals have left 



NATIONS NOT IMMORTAL. 287 

in the archives of nature, yet the skillful geolo- 
gist has been able, even in these taint records, to 
read accurate descriptions of their habits, and 
reproduce their portraits. 

The hardness of the frame- work of some ani- 
mals is the means by which they have held out 
against decay, and obtained recognition and 
reputation in times long subsequent to the term- 
ination of their lives. Their shells or bones, 
imbedded in the rock, have been exhumed, and 
are preserved as specimens in the cabinets of the 
curious. 

The dead of the human race greatly outnum- 
ber the living. The remains of man are thickly 
strewn throughout the formation which has been 
rising. during the period of his existence. 

The Chinese have sought to add to their over- 
weening self-esteem and meager reputation by 
constructing for themselves chronologies reach- 
ing many thousands of years anterior to the 
remotest date of authentic human history. The 
records of geology put the stamp of false 
hood upon all such foolish pretensions. They 
clearly show that man's origin dates back hut 
six thoUBabd years. Only in deposits made 
within this time, known afl the historic or hu- 
man period, are found the remains of man. A 
few undistinguished bones exhumed from ioil 



288 THE BODY POLITIC. 

favorable to their preservation, and some name- 
less mummies stored in catacombs, afford the 
only evidence of former bodily existence fur- 
nished by the countless and forgotten multitudes 
of ancient centuries. 

Death is likewise the lot of nations. Eelics of 
former national existence are seen in the remains 
of laws and constitutions to be found in frag- 
mentary form in the polities of existing nations; 
as the broken columns which once supported the 
magnificent temples of antiquity furnish ma- 
terials to the modern inhabitants of classical 
countries for the Construction of their cottages. 
Traces of the national life of ancient Rome may 
be seen in portions of the jurisprudence of mod- 
ern nations borrowed from the "Twelve Tables" 
and the Justinian Code. 

Many of the elder nations were rude in their 
manners and modes of government. Bent upon 
their rough pleasures and unproductive pursuits, 
they left to their successors the labor of taming 
the wilderness and building the institutions of 
civilization. Ancient nations, however, were 
not all so low in the scale of excellence as to 
cause the recital of their history and condition 
to appear flattery of present times. Some of 
them reached such elevation in literature and 
government as to cause the story of their attain- 






NATIONS NOT TMMORTAL. 289 

ments to seem more like satiiv on modern na- 
tions than unvarnished hi>toric truth. Many of 
their works excite the emulation, and shame the 
aehievements of modern times. 

The greatest and most heautil'ul monumniN 
Of those polished nations are their literary 
works. Multiplied by the modern printing- 
press, they have become imperishable. They 
are the beautiful windows through which we 
may see the irenius which adorned the olden 
times. We are thus brought into immediate 
contact with minds which gatfe ornament and 
reputation to the greatest nations of antiquity. 

With individuals, death is a natural event, 
which no one hopes to shun. All expect, in 
some coming time, to open the doors of the soul's 
frail tabernacle to admit the fatal guest. It re- 
quires no lonir course of observation on the hu- 
man race to arrive at a knowledge of the uni- 
versal reign of death. 

A man of speculative mind may sometimes 
amuse himself with constructing and carrying to 
■nsequences a theory that men do n<»t die. 
II,- proceeds t<> draw therefrom most beautiful 
and glowing inferencea Under the hypotl 
that death is excluded from human society, he 
fancies happiness atly augmented, and the 

proirr«'ss of the race promoted. 
2fi 



290 THE BODY POLITIC. 

"How much less pain!" he says; "what utter 
inexperience of bereavement! what a happy ex- 
emption from physicians' fees and undertaker* 1 
bills!" 

Your theory sounds well; but, unfortunately, 
my kind friend, it has an existence only in your 
glowing, imagination. All your fine-drawn de- 
ductions do not obviate the ghastly fact that men 
die. Facts constantly occurring prove beyond 
controversy that mortality is still the common 
lot. 

"Hold," says the theorist; "see to what on- 
happy consequences your principle must lead. 
It tends inevitably to the dissolution and extinc- 
tion of families and even nations." 

Can't help it, sir. It will not mend matters to 
ignore self-evident facts. 

"Whatever may be the import of your facts, 
I am resolved to prevent, if possible, the extinc- 
tion of my family, by rejecting the theory that 
death is a necessary and inevitable event. If, 
by accident or disease, any of my family should 
be reduced to a coldness and a pallor in any 
way resembling what has been commonly called 
death, they shall retain their places in the fam- 
ily, and be treated in all respects as before." 

You will find, my friend, that dead bodies, 
bolstered in their places for the purpose of keep- 



NATIONS NOT IMMORTAL. 291 

ing up a family organization, will rather have 
the opposite, the disintegrating effect, and would 

better be recognized in their true relations at 
once. 

The theory of ignoring death as an inevitable 
event in personal history, being so manifestly 
groundless and absurd, it seems strange that a 
similar error should have crept into the politics 
of certain statesmen. 

"It is impossible for a state to secede.'' they 
say. u Xo state can commit suicide, and die a 
political death." 

"How do you substantiate your beautiful the- 
ory?" asks an incredulous querist. 

•The Constitution knows nothing of secession, 
for this would be to provide for its own destruc- 
tion. Secession is a great moral wrong, since 
it unjustly deprives multitudes of innocent peo- 
ple of their dearest heritage of rights." 

Secession is indeed a crime against the Con- 
stitution and against moral law — a principle in 
ethics which has only very recently found its 
way into the philosophy of some ardent theorists ; 
and v«t Mich an admission does not rule it oul 
of existence. There are many flagrant sins 
■gainst human and divine law, whose existence 

is too evident to admit of doubt. 

Ifurder is ■ great crime against human so- 



202 THE BODY POLITIC. 

ciety, and suicide is sinful, yet both do some- 
times occur. 

"To allow the principle that states may die, is 
to introduce a disintegrating element into the 
Government. Allow this doctrine, and the Union 
becomes no better than a rope of sand." 

No, it is not the admission of the existence of 
crime that shall endanger the existence of the 
Union, but to blind our eyes to the fact that 
crime exists, to call it by another name, to fail 
to follow it with punishment proportioned to the 
offense — these must tend to destroy the Federal 
Government. 

The Southern States are guilty of the last 
great crime against human nature and human 
law. They committed an offense which absorbs 
and swallows up all others, as the ocean swal- 
lows up the waters of all streams. These hap- 
less states should not be denied the wages due 
their deeds — wages which, as footed up in 
the great Ledger of Divinity, are denominated 
"death." 

It were a solemn mockery to treat dead states 
as if they were alive ; to seat them in the places 
where they were wont to perform their acts of 
sovereignty in former years, and cause them to 
make some muscular movements, by means of 
federal galvanism or machinery, and call it life. 



NATIONS HOI IMMORTAL. 893 

Bettor be rid of this burdensome ceremony at 
once; bury the old, inanimate tonus out of sight, 

and allow new and better systems to occupy the 

vacant places. 

There is no national limit to the lift of Btates, 
and no inherent necessity that they should ever 
die. They are allowed to live during good be- 
havior. Their careers are coextensive with 
their virtue. Xo nation ever perished, in all the 
j»a^t. that did not fall a victim to its own crime-. 

The old and charitable proverb. 37/ >l> 

• Ivises us to say nothing concerning 
the dead save what is good. The know! 
that we shall all erelong part beyond the possi- 
bility of refuting slanders and apologizing for 
errors, makes us willing to throw the mantle of 
charity over the frailties of the dead. If we 
can n<>t prai>e. we are at liberty to maintain a 
charitable mIcii 

Thifl Latin proverb hafl not the force of law in 
fkvor of dead nations. The presumption : - 
against the decedents. The statement thai a na- 
tion no long grave charge 
it. The imagination, if not tie- Baemory, call.-. 
up the ealtoer of sin, tin- solemn arraignment, the 
just b ndiirn punishment 

Human history is a btok of precedents, 

wherein are recorded the high crimes tor which 



294 THE BODY POLITIC. 

nations have been consigned to punishment. 
Herein the high courts which investigate the 
crimes of nations will never lack the support 
which precedents give to judicial acts. Nations 
can not fail to receive abundant admonition of 
the miserable fate which shall overtake them in 
a career of transgression. 

Many nations have had their origin in crime. 
Evil was implanted in their constitutions, and 
had its outgrowth in the miserable lives of the 
wretched people. Crime, with them, was allowed 
every facility for free and full development. 

The besetting sin of many nations has been 
ambition. Fired with zeal tor conquest, they 
have gone forth to foreign war. By virtue of 
the energy and activity inspired by their ruling 
passion, they have had longer lives, and occu- 
pied more conspicuous places in history, than 
those ignoble races which have submitted them- 
selves as slaves to avarice, and have fallen vic- 
tims to the luxury and sloth always attendant 
upon ill-gotten wealth. All alike have been con- 
signed to the tomb where lie in their eternal 
sleep all wicked nations, whose crimes have 
had time to culminate and produce legitimate 
effects. 

Sin, of whatsoever kind, and how small soever 
its beginning, gathers force and fury as it pro- 



NATIONS NOT IMMORTAL. 295 

coeds, and finally overwhelms the unhappy au- 
thor of its existence. 
The builders of a state should look well to 

what they do. and overlook no blemish, however 

small, in human character. A very small offense 

has time tor unlimited enlargement in the long 
career which is set before a state. The builders 

ot' a politieal fabric should beware, lest in the 
very foundation-stones there may be some ele- 
ment of disintegration which at last shall cause 
the massive walls to crumble. 

The most practical way to prolong our national 
existence is not in rending the air with frantic 
huzzas lor the 'glorious Union." No govern- 
ment has ever been BO evil, or so near its doom, 
that some have not been found to asseverate its 
excellence, and Bet forth the infinite importance 

of it- perpetuation. Such declamation has never 
delayed for a moment the fall of the sword of 
justice suspended over the heads of national 
transgressors. 

The only legitimate and successful way of pro- 
longing a nation's life is. with honest hand and 
steady purpose to eradicate evil of every hue 
and shape. 

TllOUAandfl of true savi<>r< of their country arc 

dwelling, unknown to feme, in our populous 
- and in our- rural districts. They inhabit 



296 THE BODY POLITIC. 

mansions of wealth, and dwell in rude cabins on 
the far frontier. They sometimes find their 
ways to places of power in the Capital, but more 
frequently their deeds of patriotic statesmanship 
are performed at home. They are those who 
labor to improve their own personal characters 
by removing evil and engrafting good. They 
are those whose voices and votes are steadily 
given for the removal of private and publie sins. 

Radical reforms, beginning in private lite, and 
working upward into national character, are the 
renovating and rejuvenating processes of the body 
politic. Virtues springing up from the depths 
of individual hearts, and flowering in the deeds 
of private citizens, produce the fruit of that tree 
of life, of which the nation may eat. and live 
while time endures. 



THE POLITICAL LIFE TO COME. 297 



C II A P T E R X A X . 

The Pakadise of Nations and the Political 
Life to Comb, 

The heaven which charms the fancy of the 
Oriental dreamer is a paradise of sensual de- 
lights, where elevated aims and sober duties arc 
unknown, where the inhabitants enjoy an exist- 
ence of voluptuous ease. 

The Indian's heaven is a happy hunting- 
ground, wherti the wd man shall enjoy constant 
and unalloyed indulgence in the pleasures and 
ex itements of the chase. 

The Christian's Heaven is a happy state and 
glorious place, where the pious soul and spirit- 
ual body, eliminated of all earthly grossness, 
shall dwell forever in the presence of God. 

There is destined to be a heaven upon earth, 
into which shall be admitted all good nations 
which prolong their lives by a career of virtue 
and a course of self-correction, from which all 
nations incorrigibly bad shall he excluded by 
their previous deaths. 

Many people believe that the earth, refined 

and purified by thr fins of (he laM day, shall 



298 THE BODY POLITIC. 

form a part of the "new heavens and the now 
earth." 

The Paradise of Nations shall be fitted up 
before the day of Divine judgment. The globe 
will probably retain many of its present feat- 
ures, but they will be animated and spiritual- 
ized by a higher virtue and a brighter intelli- 
gence. The whole sphere of earth shall bo 
the seat of that grand paradise, and the whole 
race of man shall be gathered under its starry 
canopy. 

Many political systems, once greatly ad mi reel, 
shall not pass through the ordeal of ages inter- 
vening, and shall never have admittance to the 
glorious futurity to which they have aspired. 
Some forms of government and national consti- 
tutions now existing shall he found then, but so 
greatly changed and so much improved as to be 
scarcely recognized by their projectors 

As a prerequisite to admission to the Para- 
dise of Nations, there must be vitality enough 
to exist until the date of its inauguration. As 
the first element of vitality in a government 
is virtue, no nation destitute of correct princi- 
ples can hope to bo found among those highly 
favored and happy peoples. 

God designs that all the inhabitants of earth 
in the last ages shall be happy, hence no form 



THE POLITICAL LOT TO COMK. 200 

of government which d068 not subserve man's 
highest interests shall survive until that time. 

By this principle all despotic and aristocratic 
governments will be excluded. 

Great Britain may hope to have a place in the 
paradise of the great ami happy future, but in 

a form so changed as to bear but faint resem- 
blance to her former self. Her present people 
would scarcely reeognize the new and highly 
exalted state. 

Long previous to the happy era here de- 
scribed, she has denied herself the expensive 
indulgence of a "royal family.'" She no longer 
sits under the shade of hereditary sovereignty. 
Men who are voted by the people to have integ- 
rity and talent to transact national affairs are 
given due credit for what they do, and are not 
required to stand behind a man of straw, de 
nominated "Britannic Majesty."' 

The English have made the discovery that the 
first-born son is no better than his brothers, and 
is not entitled, by "accident of birth."' to the 
exclusive enjoyment of all wealth and honors 
which hi^ parents have possessed. 

With the repeal of all laws of primogeniture, 
the key-stone of the arch of aristocracy has 

fallen, and the whole architecture has crum- 
bled away and mingled with common dust Th<: 



300 THE BODY POLITIC. 

multiplied square miles of English soil which so 
long were kept a "howling wilderness," to fur- 
nish hunting-grounds for noblemen, have been 
divided and subdivided into fruitful gardens. 
The children of great landed proprietors have 
forgotten their noble ancestry, having long ln- 
fore been swallowed up in the undistinguished 
mass. 

Ireland, whose complaints became so chronic 
that Carlyle declared that the only adequate 
remedy for the ills of the island would be its 
submergence in the sea for twenty-four hours, 
has been purified without such hydropathy, and 
has been elevated without such emergence from 
the sea. and now stands, side by side, a sister 
state with England in the Republic of Great 
Britain. 

India long since served through the years of 
her apprenticeship to Kngland. and stands forth 
a free, independent. Christian Republic. 

The French Empire lias no existence. It 
went down with the infidelity and licentiousness 
of the race upon whose degradation it was built. 

The Republic of Switzerland, having over- 
leaped its Alpine boundaries, has formed the 
nucleus of a democracy which extends from 
the Atlantic to the eastern confines of the old 
and extinct Empire of Austria. 



THE POLITICAL LIFE TO COMB. 809 

Russia, which entered the path of prog] 
under Peter the Great, baring made great tor- 
ward strides, in the nineteenth century, by gfiv. 
ing freedom to the serfs. hi£ ever since made 
constant and steady progress. Poland and Hun- 
gary, once BO deeply wronged by her. now form 
.sovereign and independent members of her 
united states. Siberia is a part ot' the Russian 
Republic, no longer used as the abode and burial - 
plaee of unhappy exiles. It is dotted with smil- 
ing villages and cheerful homes, which rob the 
wintery clime of half of its gloom. 

China, whose exclusive domain was lirst 
pierced by railroads and telegraphs near the 
end of the nineteenth century, having adopted 
all the improvements of other nations now takes 
such liberal views of all the outside world, that 
the eyes of her children no longer grow obliquely 
in their heads. The Chinese man of fashion has 
cutoff his queue, and wean his hair as other men. 
Female feet are allowed to grow to normal >ize. 
ami the human understanding among that onco 
narrow-minded people has attained to consider- 
able enlargement. 

The Republic of United Africa has beeome a 
favorite abode of enlightenment and freedom. 

Civilization, which, in the early history of the 
world, had it- tir-t and highest development in 



302 THE BODY POLITIC. 

Egypt, having gone forth to illuminate the other 
continents, has returned to its former home, and 
now illuminates all Africa. The end of that 
mysterious providence, by which the unhappy 
children of Africa were dragged away westward 
into bondage, now appears in the results which 
fill the continent to overflowing with American 
language, literature, and politics. The wrath 
of man has signally wrought the praise of God. 

The United States of America is the acknowl- 
edged leader and exemplar of nations. Being 
first among nations to enjoy the blessings of 
liberty, she has communicated lessons of free- 
dom to mankind, who have grown to regard 
her with the deference due a teacher. Her do- 
main has so greatly enlarged that the ocean has 
become her boundary on every hand. This ex- 
tension has not resulted from military eonquot. 
American philanthropy would not allow indi- 
gent and unhappy nations knocking at her 
gates to be debarred admission to the Republic, 
since to share the blessings of liberty is to in- 
crease the common stock. 

Canada, having grown weary of an impracti- 
cable confederation of provinces unnecessarily 
subordinate to a transatlantic power, now forms 
a happy and prosperous portion of the American 
Union. Mexico is freed from foreign rulers and 



TUtf POLITICAL LIFE TO OOMB. 303 

domestic discords. She has closed her long chap- 
ter of political troubles, by Subscribing to the 
American Constitution, and contributing her 

entire family of twenty -three states to the Fed- 
eral Union. 

The old Southern states have become loyal 
and prosperous. Their genial climate and fer- 
tile soil, occupied and cultivated by a tree and 
happy people, render them the most attractive 
portion of the globe. Long after the failure of 
their unhappy attempt at rebellion, they cher- 
ished a foolish hostility toward the Northern 
states and the innocent victims of their ra- 
pacity, their emancipated slaves, This obstruc- 
tion long impeded the progress of the South. 
It prevented the southward flow of capital and 
industry, and proved almost as great a blight as 
the original onrse of slavery . The foolish preju- 
dice against inhabitants of other latitudes at 
length wholly passed away, having received its 
death-blow in the downfall of slavery. 

Nowhere throughout the world is a fair skin 
considered a necessary qualification for a citi- 
zen. Wraith is no longer an indispensable j«:e>>- 

poH to honor and <listinct i<>n. 

The Constitution has been amended and im- 
proved, until it is M nearly perfect a*> any 
human work can be, ReOOgnuung <b>d as 



304 THE BODY POLITIC. 

the Supreme Ruler of nations and individuals, 
it is next in sac-redness and binding force to 
the Holy Word. The Constitution guftrant+at 
equal rights to all, and gives exclusive privi- 
leges to none. The powers of the different de- 
partments of the Government are so accurately 
and nicely determined, that the people have 
the utmost security against the disintegration 
of the Government and the establishment of 
tyranny. 

Presidents are chosen not with reference to 
the locality of their hoim -s, or the strength of 
their influence to caibc men to drill according 
to the forms of party tactics. They are men 
whose dignity and elevated personal character 
are consonant with the high office which they 
hold. They are distinguished, not by their vol- 
ubility in populM harangue, but by the wi.sdoin 
and statesmanship of the plans by which they 
secure the harmony and prosperity of the coun- 
try. Since, in the progress of the Constitution 
toward perfection, the provision by which the 
President is eligible for re-election has been 
stricken out, all temptation to employ power 
and patronage, simply to secure a second term 
of office, has been removed, and the Executive 
mind is free to devote its energies to the achieve- 
ment of an administration which shall well com- 



THE POLITIOAL I.1FK to OOMB. 305 

pare with the most prosperous which have gone 
bo tore. 

Members of Congress do DOl owe their elec- 
tion to their facility in making stamp-speeches, 

ami their skill in working the wires of local 
polities, hut rather to their profound insight 
into the principles upon which republican gov- 
ernment i> based, ami their ability to rise above 
the prejudice which limits narrow minds to the 
seltish interests of a small constituency. 

Voters can all read their ballots, and have 
sufficient skill in the use of tho pen to draw 
lines of erasure aCTOSS the names of candidates 
whose principles are not accordant with their 
own. They allow themselves no longer to bo 
whipped into the traces of party by those who 
hold the reins and wield the lash. They no 
longer bend their shoulders to drag the tri- 
umphal chariots of demagogues through the mire 
into which evil practices have plunged them. 

Christian people are not afraid to take an in- 
terest and a part in politics, lest their garments 
should be defiled in the "muddy pool." No 
pharisaical spirit now induces them to stand 

aloof, and say. "I would rather risk being lost 

in a ship managed by incompetent sailors, than 

to pollute my hand- by working the greasy 
ropes.*' Politics and law afford as appropriate 

26 



306 THE BODY POLITIC. 

fields for the activity of the Christian as any 
other department of life and labor. 

Christian sects. which once divided their ener- 
gies and weakened their influence by their dis- 
agreements with one another, have Loflfg ago 
made such a harmonious and combined attack 
upon the strongholds of error, that these have 
been carried by assault; and Satan, driven to 
unfrequented dens and eaves, to which he once 
pursued the persecuted saints, is meditating 
a final abandonment of the mundane sphere. 
Religious denominations in vwry land are all 
happily separated from legal wedlock with the 
state, and consequently cxerci-e a inoM potent 
and salutary influence upon the government of 
the world. 

Ministers of the GrOftpel are no longer decried 
for denouncing political sins. 

Statesmen find the Scriptures a rich treasury 
of political wisdom. They have not only heard 
of the Bible, but have diligently studied its prin- 
ciples, and seldom misquote or misapply the sa- 
cred "Word. They no longer use the words of 
Scripture as "glittering generalities," to round a 
rhetorical flourish, but as their practical rule of 
faith and practice. 

Lawyers labor not to pervert the ends of 
justice, or darken counsel by words without 



THE POLITICAL LIFK To DOME, 30? 

wisdom. Their occupation is not gone, although 
the majority of men are no longer rogues. They 
find employment in oiling the bearings of the 

legal machinery. Be that the wheels of justice 
run noiselessly, swiftly, and certainly toward 
their destination. 

Physicians have east aside all systems and 
nostrum^ which tend to undermine the constitu- 
tion, rather than to lengthen human lite. They 
are accredited officers o£ health, and receive com- 
pensation for the time their patients are well, 
rather than for the number of days in which 
they are sick. Since each day > B)ckneS4 dimin- 
ishes the physician's fee, his anxious care and 
chief concern is given to make men well and 
keep them so. 

Mechanics, being the bone and sinew, the 
health and strength of the nation, are held in 
merited esteem by those who derive luxuries 
and comforts from their hard-handed toil. By 
their progress in intelligence and -kill, and the 
multiplied improvements in labor-saving 
trivances. they secure S competent support by 
less boors of labor, and the leisure thus secured 

they devote to the cultivation of their minds 
and the education of their families* 

Farmers have wrought so intelligently Dpon 
the surface of the earth, that they have brought 



308 THE BODY POLITIC. 

it well-nigh back to Eden-like loveliness. They 
have transformed the primal curse of labor into 
a blessing. They have allowed thorns and briers 
to spring up so rarely, that evidence scarcely can 
be found that earth was ever cursed for human 
sin. 

Merchants are content with reasonable gains, 
and are not in such haste to grow rich as to rush 
headlong into bankruptcy. There is no longer 
arrayed against them the prejudice which ex- 
isted in the days of monkish intolerance, caus- 
ing to be enacted the Illiberal canon: u ll<>nu> 
Mercator vix aut nunquam potest /><<> placer*? 1 etc. 

"A merchant can scarcely, if at all. please God, 
and. therefore, no Christian should be a mer- 
chant, and if he wishes to be one. let him be 
expelled the Church of Cod." Being governed 
in all his transactions by the principles of Chris- 
tianity, the man of trade and commerce has be- 
come the practical missionary of the Gospel, and 
the peacemaker of world. 

Railroads, overlying the continents, form en- 
during bands of interest and friendship, which 
unite far-separated people. Telegraphs perme- 
ating every sea. and interlacing every land, do 
much to prevent or correct misunderstandings, 
and render wars unnecessary. 

Moral and intellectual elements in national 



THE POLITICAL I.IKK TO I'o.MK. 309 

character have grows to Mich preponderance, 

that nations do not resort to violence tor the 

adjustment of grievances, They have organised 
a grand Representative Assembly, whose acts 

are final in all matters relating to international 
law. 

The world moves in harmony with the Uni- 
verse. The terrestrial sphere, revolving about 
the sun. forms part of the solar system, which 
raove> a*> a portion of the grand '-frame of the 
Universe" about the Throne of God. 

The political system is no less harmonious and 
complete. Intelligent and moral people consti- 
tute the population of the states which combine 
to make the republics, whose domains constitute 
the political and physical sphere of earth. 

The republics which possess the world form 
the well-regulated " Family of Nations,' 1 which 
lives and moves in orderly obedience to the Uni- 
versal Father. 



THE KM). 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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